Julia Rice carried Oak Park High into the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

The sophomore star had 19 strikeouts on the mound and came through at the plate with a bases-loaded single to lift Oak Park to a 2-1, 11-inning victory over visiting Santa Monica in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division III softball playoffs at Valley View Park.

Oak Park (23-5) advances to Thursday's quarterfinals against Irvine Beckman, a 3-2 winner over Los Altos of Hacienda Heights. Santa Monica, the Ocean League champion, ends the season at 26-4.

Oak Park's Rose Zeolla opened the bottom of the 11th with a single to left field. Michelle Tabone was safe on pitcher Hannah-Rose Peters' throwing error to first base. Aly Skene walked to load the bases and Rice drilled a pitch to center field to score Zeolla.

"It was great," said Rice following the dramatic win. "We didn't know much about them. They had great hitting and pitching."

Santa Monica scored first in the fourth inning. Kaile Nakao and Peters walked. Yaneth Guzman followed with an RBI single to center field.

Oak Park responded in the bottom of the fourth. Jen Colquhoun walked and Zeolla sacrificed her to second base. Michelle Tabone's double to right-center field brought in Colquhoun for the tying run.

Rice (18-3) scattered six hits and walking four. She has 289 strikeouts this season.

Peters (14-3) allowed eight hits and had six strikeouts. Santa Monica's Hailey Condon had two hits.

Peters had a scare in the sixth inning when she fouled a pitch off her left wrist and left the game , but she returned in the bottom of the sixth to resume pitching.

Rice remembers ending last season with a first-round 1-0 playoff loss against Los Angeles Baptist.

Rice said the experience has helped the Eagles this season. Oak Park finished second in the Tri-Valley League behind Oaks Christian.

After graduating seven seniors from last year's team, Oak Park played a strong non-league and league schedule to help prepare the Eagles for this year's playoffs.

Oak Park's Stephanie Gilbert and Zeolla each had two hits. Sarah Rosenberg had a hit and a sacrifice. Skene had a double. Kylie Abrams played well at third base. Jenny Liepman and Rice each had sacrifice bunts.

Rice's sister, Kayla, was her catcher last season. Kayla is a freshman at Cal State Fullerton. Rice has been playing softball since kindergarten and her travel-ball pitching days have paid dividends.

"She was just getting in the groove," said Rob Hall, the Oak Park assistant coach. "She was finding the zone."

Oak Park coach Roger Newell was happy with his ace pitcher.

"She sees the end and goes for it," said Newell, in his 23rd year of coaching the Eagles.

Oak Park was a CIF softball finalist in 2002.