MARINA will take on Westlake in the CIF-SS Division III final on Friday (HBUHSD photo).

The Marina Vikings softball team didn’t win the Sunset League title this year, but are poised to get some more impressive hardware: a CIF-SS title.

On Friday, they’ll face off against Westlake High of Westlake Village for the championship of Division III at 4 p.m. at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine..The teams are similar, with similar records: Marina is 18-13 overall and Westlake is 19-13. And they split their two games against common opponents.

One clue about how they match up might come from their meeting on March 8, when the Vikings beat the Warriors 12-2.

Team stats are comparable. Marina’s batting average its better at .336 to .315, but Westlake’s on-base percentage is slightly better than that of Marina at .407 to .406.

In the Viking lineup, Gabriella DiBenedetto is hitting .438, while Eva Mazzotti has an on-base stat of .488. As for Westlake, Kaitlin McDuffer is hitting .500, while Presley Watters gets on base at a .600 clip.

And as for how the stat-makers rated them, Westlake is 14th in their division, compared to Marina’s 22nd spot.
But that’s just numbers. It will all be settled on the diamond on Friday afternoon down in Irvine.