SOFTBALL : CSUN Dominates Postseason Awards

Delanee Anderson and Beth Onestinghel of Cal State Northridge were selected pitcher of the year and player of the year in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Anderson (15-3) was 6-0 and didn’t allow a run in 40 innings during CCAA games. Onestinghel, a junior outfielder, batted .379 with a school-record 39 runs batted in. She batted .404 in conference games.

Other Northridge players on the all-conference first team were outfielders Barbara Jordan and Priscilla Rouse, first baseman Kelly Winn, second baseman Kim Bernstein, shortstop Lori Shelly and pitcher Debbie Dickman.

Third baseman Barbara Flynn and outfielder Tricia Saxton made the second team.

Onestinghel, Jordan, Rouse, Winn, Shelly and Dickman were also selected to the all-national tournament team.

Good and living with it: CSUN Coach Gary Torgeson was worried when pitcher Debbie Dickman was hit hard in Northridge’s 4-3 win over Florida Southern Saturday in the semifinal of the Division II championship tournament.

Dickman was asked to protect a 3-1 lead over the last three innings against Florida Southern, even though Anderson, CSUN’s starter, had allowed only two hits. Dickman gave up five hits and two unearned runs before CSUN won it on a home run by Priscilla Rouse leading off the bottom of the seventh inning.

“I was a little concerned about Deb after the way she threw,” Torgeson said on Sunday after Northridge beat Florida Southern again, 4-0, to win its fourth title in five years. “She said she didn’t want to pitch.”

Dickman said she didn’t want to pitch because Anderson was throwing well. “I hope they realize,” she said after the game, referring to her teammates, “that it wasn’t my idea to come in like that.”

After Dickman threw a no-hitter in Sunday’s championship game, Torgeson said: “Deb is going to have to learn to accept the fact that she’s good and live with it. If other people on the team can’t live with it, then that’s just too bad. She has to learn to rise above all that.”

No contest: Dori Stankewitz of Florida Southern and Debbie Tidy of Sacred Heart were the most highly touted pitchers in Division II softball, but in the tournament Northridge pitchers Dickman and Anderson appeared stronger.

Stankewitz and Tidy came in with microscopic earned-run averages and bulging strikeout numbers.

Stankewitz, who was 2-2 in the tournament (both losses to CSUN), came in with a 24-1 record, 0.38 ERA and was averaging better than a strikeout per inning. Tidy, a four-time All-American, had a 31-0 record and an ERA of 0.06.

Stankewitz didn’t strikeout out a batter in 12 innings against CSUN, while giving up 22 hits. Tidy lost in her only two tournament appearances.

Barbara Flynn of Northridge seemed especially eager to hit Stankewitz. In her first five at-bats over two games against the Florida Southern right-hander, Flynn hit the first pitch every time for a double, two singles and two line-drive outs. In her sixth at-bat, Flynn swung and missed a pitch, then lined the next one back at Stankewitz, who forced a runner at third.

The Moorpark College softball team suffered a pair of season-ending losses Saturday in the double-elimination Southern California regional at Palomar College. The Raiders (27-13) dropped consecutive games to Palomar and Cerritos by 3-1 scores.

Karen Mead, who finished with a school-record 295 career strikeouts, was named the Western State Conference Pitcher of the Year. Teammate Malia Ouzts, who batted .413, was named the conference defensive player of the year.