Softball: Rosary’s league title comes with a big Rush
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Tom Tice, the former coach at Rosary and now the assistant to his former player, Nicola Walsh Huerta, left his seat at the Rush concert Tuesday night at the Nokia Theater to take my phone call. I tell you, what some people will do to talk about beating Mater Dei.
Rosary, No. 19 in The Times’ ranking, locked up the Trinity League title with a 6-0 victory over Mater Dei to win its first title since taking the Serra League crown in 2005.
Caitrin Debaun had two runs batted in, one on a first-inning solo inside-the-park home run at Clark Park, and Nicole Ortiz had a two-out, two-run single in the third inning. ‘That was really the big blow,’ Tice said. ‘There’s an enormous difference between a 1-0 lead and a 3-0 lead. It was a clutch hit. Caitrin’s home run was more of a bad hop than a timely hit.’
Alex Peyton (13-7) lowered her earned-run average to 0.77 with her 10th shutout of the season.
Rosary has won 10 in a row, largely because of a renewed focus on defense and a couple of small lineup changes since consecutive losses to Torrance and Fullerton at the Woodbridge Classic.
‘The way we’re playing, we match up with anybody,’ Tice said. ‘The top 10 committee’s opinion to the contrary, we’re better than them. We’ve shown it in two games.’
Done with the regular season, Rosary awaits its playoff fate. It has been unranked in the Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll, though Mater Dei is ranked No. 6. Mater Dei appeared poll-blessed the last few weeks: It had moved up to No. 4 after its earlier 6-1 loss to Rosary.
Mater Dei is unranked by The Times, but it is the section ranking that greatly influences the seeding of the playoffs. Coupled with an upset loss to Corona on Tuesday by Corona Santiago, which had been ranked No. 2 in the division, there’s no telling how the playoff pairings will be affected.
‘I’m putting my faith in the overall committee to seed the teams properly over the course of the season,’ Tice said, ‘not based on the history of the top 10.’
-- Martin Henderson