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Community College Softball State Tournament : Fullerton Within One Victory of Title After Two Wins

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Times Staff Writer

Margo Davis, Fullerton College’s softball coach, hates to lose. But even she admits that one good thing resulted from her team’s loss to rival Santa Ana last weekend in the Southern California regional tournament--the Hornets were given extra motivation to win the state tournament.

And Saturday, on the first day of the tournament, the Hornets looked like a team on a mission to prove they are the best in California. They routed the No. 1 team from Northern California, College of San Mateo, 9-1, and then defeated Sacramento City, 2-0, to move within one victory of the state title.

Fullerton (32-9), the only unbeaten team in the double-elimination tournament, will play either Santa Ana or Sacramento City today at 2 p.m. The Dons, who lost to Sacramento City in the tournament opener, and Panthers play at noon in a loser’s bracket game, and the winner will have to beat the Hornets twice to win the state title since each has one loss.

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“We played very, very well today,” Davis said. “We played good defense, we hit the ball and we got great pitching.”

Great would not be exaggerating how well Fullerton sophomore right-hander Lisa Fresquez, who got both wins, pitched. In the rout of San Mateo, she struck out 12 of the 15 batters she faced and combined with Lisa Walczy on a no-hitter.

Against Sacramento City, the diminutive Fresquez pitched a one-hit shutout and struck out 10 to improve her record to 28-5.

She did all that despite being a bit fatigued.

“I am a little tired,” she said. “But I’ll pitch twice today if they need me to. Today is my last game here, and we want to win the state since Santa Ana won the regional.”

Fullerton, which isn’t known for its hitting, had a day-high 10 hits against overmatched San Mateo. Carla Williams got the first two of her three RBIs in the game with a two-run, inside-the-park home run in the second inning, and Linda Barnes capped the four-run rally with a two-run single. Liz Carter added two RBIs for the Hornets.

Fullerton had only three hits against Sacramento ace Angie Smith (34-7), but they got some help from the Panthers to score their first run. Sacramento City shortstop Martha Oyog’s throwing error with two out allowed Carter to score for a 1-0 Fullerton lead.

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The Hornets got an insurance run in the third when Debbie Ness singled, stole second, took third on a sacrifice by Fresquez and scored on a squeeze by Darlene Trenary.

Santa Ana (39-3), the tournament favorite, was upset by Sacramento City (39-10) despite the fact the Dons’ Alani Sliva no-hit the Panthers. The only run of the game scored in the sixth inning when Silva threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded.

Sacramento City was able to load the bases because of some shaky Santa Ana defense. Don third baseman Patty Felker made two errors in the inning.

And even though Santa Ana came back to eliminate San Mateo (32-8) later, 6-1, Coach Jim Reach was still thinking about how the Dons’ lost earlier.

“You stay around the game long enough and you think you’ve seen every way there is to lose,” he said. “But in that first game, we invented a new way to lose.

“We hadn’t been shut out all year, and then we were for the first time when our pitcher throws a no-hitter. That makes it very tough for us, because to win the championship we have to win three games today.”

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Silva (22-2) combined on a three-hitter with Chris Makimoto to get the win against San Mateo. The Dons wasted no time taking the lead as Lesa Godfrey led off the game with a line-drive double to left and scored on a single by Sam Arledge.

Santa Ana added four runs in the fifth after two were out. The Dons had four hits in the inning and San Mateo made two errors.

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