SHE’S JUST PERFECT : Granger Breaks Section Record With 22nd No-Hitter

It was not dugout superstition that kept the Valencia High School softball team quiet during Michele Granger’s record-setting no-hitter Thursday, but the sheer commonness of the thing: Granger, a junior, had thrown 21 of them before.

This one, her 22nd, set a Southern Section record for career no-hitters. And like any good overachiever, she did it one better--it was also a perfect game, the fourth of her career.

There was negligible suspense to the no-hitter, a 5-0 Valencia victory at home. Only three Western players managed to connect for weak groundouts. The other 18 batters--a term far more appropriate than hitters when Granger is pitching--struck out.

It was Granger’s fifth no-hitter of the season and broke the Southern Section record of 21 career no-hitters set by Monica Messmer of South Hills High School in West Covina in 1980-83.

The attempt for a perfect game had more drama. It was nearly lost with two out in the seventh on a

passed ball after the third strike on Dena Peterson, the 21st batter. But catcher Valerie Finley threw Peterson out on a close call at first, saving the perfect game and preserving the symmetry of a score book marked with three up, three down in every inning.

But instead of euphoria at the conclusion, there was only workaday hand-slapping. In fact, Granger, who admits to having no more than a vague idea of any of her statistics other than her batting average, said she did not realize she had set a record. Besieged after the game, she asked if she had done something special.

“I just threw,” said Granger, who has pitched every Valencia game this season except for last Saturday’s, when she slipped off to Indianapolis to accept a U.S. Olympic Committee award as the Sportswoman of the Year in softball. She had only mentioned to the coaching staff that she couldn’t pitch because she had to be in Indianapolis.

“With Michele, we don’t talk about (no-hitters),” said Debbie Fassel, Valencia coach.

There’s a reason: No team has ever managed more than four hits off Granger in a Valencia game.

She has done it by relying on her bread, butter and everything else pitch, a riseball with movement that has been clocked at 65 m.p.h. Finley got the job of catching it by being the only player on the team bold enough to try it when she and Granger were freshmen.

“We call (the riseball) all the time,” said Finley.

There doesn’t seem to be much reason to do anything else.

Valencia (2-0, 9-5) won the game with a five-run fourth inning, scoring the runs on five hits--including a triple by Kristi Valdez and a double by Amanda Chadwick.