There's no question that Port Of Los Angeles High softball was stacked for a team that only competes in the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Small Schools Division only by enrollment and size of the school.

It was also clearly evident that POLA plays like anything BUT a 'small school'.

All in all, the Polar Bears don't care about individual stats or self-proclaimed glory, they were all about goals that benefited the team and that in itself, spoke for itself as they completely took Division 3 by force and shook it to its very foundation with its third straight CIF-LACS Division III championship.

Yet, there were two players in particular, that had awesome seasons in sophomore pitcher Nicolle Miranda, and junior first baseman Allison Bayer.

Miranda easily eliminated the 'sophomore slump' theory by delivering with yet another spectacular all-around season, while after a slow start at the plate in the early moments of the season, Bayer made a change in her hitting stance that eventually produced the greatest hitting season in POLA softball history.

Since both players are seemingly intertwined with each other, it would only seemed fitting that this dynamic duo is our pick for the 2013 News Pilot Prep Softball Co-Players Of The Year.

Head coach Melissa Bugarin-Espinoza must be extremely excited to know she has Miranda for two more years.

The reigning CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division 3 Pitcher Of The Year had yet another amazing effort in the circle, posting a 21-8 record with a 1.88 ERA, piling up 205 strikeouts opposed to just 39 walks in 156 2/3 innings pitched in 2013. One of Miranda's most memorable games came against City Section power Banning of Wilmington in the El Segundo Tournament, where she struck out 12 in a 4-3 Polar Bear victory on April 28.

In POLA's 16-3 win over Northridge Academy in the CIF-LACS Division 3 finals at Cal State Northridge on May 25, Miranda was sensational with ten strikeouts, only allowing two hits in blanking the Pumas in her six innings of action.

Not to be outdone was Miranda's sensational hitting season, where she hit .442 at the plate with seven home runs, 36 RBIs, 30 runs scored and 42 hits, striking out only five times in 106 plate appearances. Against Bishop Gorman of Nevada in the Torrance National Tournament, Miranda hit POLA's first fence-clearing home run in school history with her two-run shot in the Polar Bears' 7-2 victory.

Bayer, who also crushed a fence-clearing home run in that same game, didn't look like she was going to have the season she had early on as she struggled mightily in the Redondo Tournament to start the season.

So a change was needed... and Bayer, now a three-time City champion, found it.

Instead of stepping while in the box, the three-year veteran, also a standout girls volleyball middle blocker, went to a front-foot hitting style with an open stance, which also put her weight on her front foot, taking away the load-up. The rest... as was many of POLA's single-season hitting records, were history.

When the 2013 season came to an end with the Polar Bears' third straight City title on May 25, Bayer ended up with three single-season records, as she led the team with a .444 batting average with 11 home runs and school records 49 RBIs, 45 runs scored and 14 doubles. Bayer nearly got a fifth record with 44 hits, but fellow teammate and sophomore C/INF Savana Ramirez had 47 hits.

In the CIF-LACS Division 3 playoffs, Bayer was simply unstoppable, hitting .714 (10-of-14) with four homers, 3 doubles and 9 RBIs, hitting two homers in the semifinal win over Valley Academy Arts & Sciences of Granada Hills. In the championship victory over Northridge Academy, Bayer went 3-for-5 with two booming doubles, one of which brought in two runs.

Bayer, the reigning CIF-LACS Division 3 Player Of The Year, also hit a towering bomb in the Las Vegas Spring Jamboree Tournament against Long Beach Jordan that ricocheted off the scoreboard, the most majestic blast out of many blasts she provided this season.

The combined efforts of both Miranda and Bayer, along with several other mind-blowing contributions from other players on this amazing team, powered POLA to their best season in history at 28-8 overall.

One can only imagine with the work ethic of these two, the kind of staggering seasons they can potentially have in 2014.