San Diego Section Softball Championships : Madison Makes the Most of Its Chances to Win

Madison High School had six hits in the San Diego Section 3-A softball finals Saturday. Thing is, the hits came in innings when the top-seeded Warhawks didn’t score.

Madison had to find other ways to win its third 3-A title in five years. Lisa Glassford’s pitching kept the Warhawks in the game and they then capitalized on two errors by Monte Vista to beat the Monarchs, 2-0, at Helix High School.

Glassford struck out 11 and allowed only two hits. In the first, shortstop Wendy Choisser just missed Sindy Duncan’s grounder. Duncan advanced to second on Choisser’s overthrow. After that, Glassford retired 13 in a row before walking Duncan in the sixth.

Lori Stevenson singled after the walk to Duncan, moving Duncan to second. Those were the only times that Monte Vista had runners in scoring position.

The way Madison scored was not exactly orthodox.

With two outs, Stephanie Everett reached on a fielder’s choice. Glassford hit a ball that got by Stevenson, the shortstop. Everett rounded second and headed for third. The left fielder was slow picking up the ball, so Everett tried to score. She was thrown out by 15 feet but called safe when the umpire ruled that Stevenson had obstructed Everett.

In the fifth, Beth Taylor walked and advanced to second on a subsequent walk. Taylor scored when the Monte Vista third baseman overthrew first.

“We’ll take the runs any way we can get them,” Madison Coach Steve Miner said. “I didn’t even see the play in the first inning. I don’t want to comment on the call . . . but any time you score a run on a controversial call it’s important.”

In other San Diego Section softball finals:

Christian 6, Crawford 3--Junior Michelle Wesson and top-seeded Christian may have not played their best game of the year, but they had enough to hold off defending champion Crawford and win their first 2-A title.

Wesson (23-2) had thrown five one-hitters during the season and had defeated Crawford twice. Saturday, she gave up five hits, struck out five and hit two batters.

Christian had beaten Crawford in Central League play, 16-1 and 2-0. But Saturday’s game was tougher. Christian led, 4-0, going into the top of the fourth inning but Crawford cut the score to 5-3 with two runs on three singles and an error. Christian Coach Rene Palafox held a conference with his team in the middle of the inning. Crawford did not score again.

“I just told them to settle down,” Palafox said. “We threw the ball around a little but we didn’t throw the game away. The kids hung tough and played good defense the rest of the way. We were missing that last year.”

Wesson’s sister, Janelle, was 2 for 3 with two runs scored. Wesson was 2 for 4 and scored once.

Victory Christian 8, Imperial 2--Four years of frustration ended for Heather Carson (21-2), who pitched a three-hitter. As a freshman, Carson was the losing pitcher when the Vikings lost to La Jolla Country Day in the 1-A finals. Victory Christian has not lost to the Torres since, but didn’t make it back to the finals until Saturday.

“Six of us have been together for four years,” Carson said. “It’s frustrating knowing you’re the best team for four years and not winning. That’s a lot of pressure. I was so incredibly determined, there was no way we were going to lose today.”

Carson gave up only an infield single through five innings before consecutive singles and a three-base error accounted for the Tigers’ two runs.

Tiffany Silvey went 3 for 4 with a triple and three RBIs for the Vikings.