Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff Simi Valley High's Rebecca Grant scores the only run of the game on Thursday against Agoura.

Twenty-seven up. Twenty-seven down.

A perfect game?

No, for the Simi Valley High softball team, a perfect season.

In a rare if not unprecedented accomplishment, the Pioneer girls put the finishing touches on a flawless regular season Thursday, edging Agoura 1-0 to improve to 27-0, 14-0 mark in the Marmonte League.

"Unbelievable," said shortstop Sam Fischer, the slugger (a .486 batting average with 10 home runs) who bats cleanup. "Oh, my gosh. It's like — I'm without words.

"My sophomore year we were 11-12, and now we're 27-0. We just worked so hard for it."

Simi Valley coach Russ Michael isn't aware of a Marmonte League softball team that's reached the postseason undefeated — and given the Marmonte's history of intensely competitive softball, it's certainly safe to say it hasn't happened often. So what allowed this team to run the table?

Well, for one thing, it's a veteran group. Thursday's starting lineup included five seniors and four juniors, with seniors batting fourth through eighth in the order.

"Four years ago, I knew I had a chance to have a real special team, when they came in as freshmen," said Michael. "I knew some of the sophomores and juniors that were going to be here."

It was at this year's Righetti tournament — which included a 7-6 win over Thousand Oaks and a 1-0 win over well-regarded Madera — that reinforced the feeling.

Of course, some of the players felt that way even earlier.

"It was tryouts — the day after we set up the team, they put up on a whiteboard, Marmonte League champions,' " said Amber Olive, who drove in Thursday's winning run. "That's what we were working for, and at that point, there was no doubt."

It's a skilled team, obviously. This is a Simi Valley team capable of pounding the ball — the Pioneers entered Thursday's game batting .334, had four starters Thursday batting .355 or better, and had six wins by 10 or more runs — but it's also a team that has found ways to win close games. Thursday's game was the team's seventh one-run win and fourth by a 1-0 score.

"The kids believe," said Michael, "that they can win. They never give up. They feel like they're in the game; as long as there's one out left, they've got a chance. That's made the difference."

Said Fischer, "We knew that every team was going to come and give us their A' game. We knew nobody was going to take us lightly.

"We just came to every game really prepared, and knew what we had what we needed to win. We were definitely confident."

The biggest test of that theory came April 24, when Simi Valley trailed 1-0 in the sixth inning at Thousand Oaks.

"That was probably the biggest nailbiter," said Fischer. "Because T.O, when they get ahead, they shut people down. That was probably our scariest game."

But when it was over, Simi Valley had won 2-1.

"We're like, No, not today. They don't have us today. We're going to win,' " said Olive. "And we did. We put it together."

Inevitably, it took some luck to go 27-0.

"A winning team naturally has to get the breaks sometimes," said Michael. "This season, we got the breaks."

Thursday's game was a pretty good example. In the third inning, Rebecca Grant smoked a line drive to center field. Agoura's Shannon Kaufman ran the ball down and had it in her glove, but it popped out when she ran into the center-field fence. It's strictly a judgment call whether she had the ball long enough to call it a catch, and in this case, the umpires ruled she didn't. Grant ended up on third and scored on a sacrifice fly.

But if that was fortune, the rest of the day was simply flawless. Simi Valley played errorless ball behind pitcher Sophia Perez, a freshman who tossed a one-hitter in her first varsity start.

The Pioneers may have had some breaks along the way, but it's safe to say the vast majority of those 27 wins came on the merits that come with being a talented, fundamentally sound team.

"We've been practicing them all year long, the fundamentals," said Michael. "And we play a fundamental game. Just the basics."

Michael knows what his players can do, but he might not always know what they think. Moments after he said his players weren't superstitious, but never talked about going undefeated, Fischer offered a slightly different viewpoint.

"We're really superstitious," she said. "We say it every day: We're undefeated, we've got to keep this going. We knock on our heads, knock on wood, everything.

"So it's always been in the back of our minds. We want to just keep it going. Because our basketball team was undefeated" — the Pioneer boys started 13-0 and finished 26-2 — "and we just want to be better than our basketball team, you know?"

So far, so good.

And so much for not acknowledging the streak.

"I know some people would take it as, Don't think about that; think about this game,' " said Fischer. "But we're like, Let's go win our 27th game in a row.' " Said Olive, "We don't like the feeling of losing, so we'd rather win. (Losing) still cuts like a knife."

The Pioneers may remember that feeling, but they'll remember more the one that come with winning. And winning. And winning.

"It's something that we're never going to forget," said Fischer. "And having 10 seniors, it's been more meaningful. Being in this program four years and having this stellar season, it's just amazing. All of it."

Amazing. And perfect.

What more can a team ask?

— Contact Star columnist David Lassen at dlassen@VenturaCountyStar.com.