Rouse Lifts CSUN Into Title Game With Homer

Priscilla Rouse may have bunted for the last time.

Forget that vaunted Cal State Northridge short game. It was time for a little late-inning long ball Saturday in the NCAA Division II softball playoffs, and the senior right fielder delivered the crowning blow.

Rouse, who had attempted to bunt twice, hit a solo home run over the left-field fence in the seventh inning at Maranatha Park to give the Lady Matadors a 4-3 victory over Florida Southern and a chance to win their fourth national championship in five years.

Florida Southern (49-5) will get another shot at Northridge this morning. If the Lady Matadors lose that game, another will follow for the championship.

Rouse’s fourth homer not only won the game, but it also gave her the CSUN season home-run record. She is also only two shy of a record 27 sacrifices, and the way Barbara Jordan was hitting, it looked like Rouse might break that first.

Jordan had hits in each of her first three at-bats without hitting the ball out of the infield.

The only problem with Jordan reaching base so often is that it generally reduces Rouse to a designated bunter.

She was asked to bunt in the first and again in the third after Jordan had led off each inning by beating out grounders to short. Rouse popped up to the catcher in her first at-bat, and almost did it again her second time up before before singling when Coach Gary Torgeson finally let her swing away.

“When she popped it up again I decided we weren’t going to do that anymore,” Torgeson said. “She was frustrated. Sometimes it’s better to let hitters hit.”

Rouse had a green light with two outs and Jordan on first in the fourth inning and she hit a long drive that Florida Southern center fielder Beth Greig ran down near the fence.

When Northridge took the field for the next half inning, Rouse was angry.

Said Jordan: “She was really upset. She said, ‘She’s not supposed to catch that.’ I said, ‘Yes she is, she’s an All-American.’ ”

But with the game tied, 3-3, in the bottom of the seventh, Rouse hit one where not even an All-American can roam.

Rouse’s homer destroyed a two-run rally by Florida Southern in the top of the inning.

Debbie Dickman (23-3), who came in in relief of Delanee Anderson at the start of the fifth inning, gave up five hits in three innings. In her previous three games, the freshman had allowed just 10 hits.

Northridge (57-7) had nine hits in the first three innings, but had to settle for single runs in each inning.

Beth Onestinghel, who was 3 for 3, singled home Jordan in the first inning. Barbara Flynn, who was 2 for 3, doubled in Bernstein in the second. In the third, consecutive singles by the top four batters in the CSUN order--Jordan, Rouse, Onestinghel and Kelly Winn--accounted for a run.

Notes

CSUN’s Onestinghel is 5 for 6 in the tournament with 3 RBIs. . . . Florida Southern pitcher Dori Stankewitz has averaged better than a strikeout per inning the past two years, but she didn’t have one against Northridge. . . . Florida Southern, which has a team batting average of .370, was playing slo-pitch softball until three years ago. The Lady Mocs reached the championship game by defeating Mankato State, Minn., 1-0, in eight innings in Saturday’s final game. . . . Sacred Heart was the first team eliminated from the tournament, losing to Mankato State, 4-1, in a morning game after dropping a 1-0 decision to Florida Southern on Friday. Four-time All-American Debbie Tidy, who came into the tournament having allowed only two earned runs in 214 2/3 innings, suffered both of the Lady Pioneers’ losses.