Southern Section Softball Championships : Woodbridge, Laguna Hills Face the Inevitable

When Tiffany Boyd talks softball these days, she sounds less like one of the best pitchers in the Southern Section than a seer who has gazed at an unalterable future.

One can hardly disagree with her vision. Throughout the season, Boyd and the rest of the Woodbridge Warriors have been on a collision course with Laguna Hills, their only real competition in the Pacific Coast League. And it seemed that it just had to be that way. The teams even tied for the league championship with 9-1 records.

Woodbridge beat Laguna Hills, 3-1, in their first meeting. Laguna Hills won the next one, 2-1, prompting Coach Cliff Jarmie to tell Woodbridge Coach Sue Ford that the game should have been for the Southern Section 2-A championship since the two best teams were playing.

When the Warriors face Laguna Hills at Mayfair Park today at 6 p.m., it finally will be for the title. Diamond Bar will meet Sunny Hills at 8 p.m. in the 3-A final.

“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Boyd. “We expected to play Laguna Hills. We always looked at at our scores and then Laguna Hills’ scores. We always knew even in preseason they were tough.

“I think if we were in the finals and they didn’t make it, they would say, ‘Hey, we could have beaten Woodbridge.’ ”

Agrees Jarmie: “As soon as the league was over, my assistant and I looked at the pairings, and we thought a realistic final would be us and them. It doesn’t surprise me that we’re meeting in the finals.”

Woodbridge (19-6) is a young team led by Boyd, who just missed tying the Southern Section record for consecutive no-hitters Tuesday with a one-hitter to beat top-seeded La Serna, 4-0, in the semifinals. Boyd had four straight no-hitters going into the game. Monica Messmer of South Hills had five straight no-hitters in 1983.

The first time Boyd faced Laguna Hills, she had 17 strikeouts. The second time she managed only 11.

“We struck out quite a bit that first game and cut down in the second,” Jarmie said. “I think that was the key to winning the second game.”

Boyd also leads the Warriors in hitting with a .409 average.

The Hawks, however, are more balanced. In 30 games, Laguna Hills has shut out 17 teams and allowed six others only one run.

Sophomore catcher Shelley Carey leads the team with a .436 average; senior second baseman Erica Ziencinais is batting .367. The Hawks had 17 hits en route to an 11-3 victory over Corona del Mar on Tuesday.

Dawn Roberts (24-6)--who pitches behind Boyd in the rotation of the 18-and-under American Softball Assn. California Raiders--lacks Boyd’s power but is still effective. She has pitched every Laguna Hills game.

“She is a smart pitcher,” Jarmie said. “She has done a good job of keeping people off-balance this year. She doesn’t throw in the mid- to upper 60s, but she’s effective.”

In the 3-A final:

Ruby Flores (17-2), who has allowed only one earned run and only three unearned runs in 131 innings, will lead second-seeded Sunny Hills against unseeded Diamond Bar, which upset Valencia, 1-0, in 15 innings Tuesday to advance to the final.

“The key to the game is going to be Ruby’s pitching,” said Cathy Williams, Sunny Hills coach. “As long as she makes her ball move, they’ll make contact with her, but they won’t hit her.

“But our team also has to come out aggressive right from the start. Against Charter Oaks we came out in the first inning and were stinging the ball right away. If we come out that aggressive against this team we’ll definitely win the ballgame.”

Sunny Hills, champion of the Freeway League, had 13 hits in beating Charter Oaks, 6-0, in Tuesday’s semifinals.

Williams is surprised Diamond Bar is in the finals, but says Sunny Hills won’t be taking its opponent lightly.

The Lancers (26-5) have seven seniors in their starting lineup. Catherine Steadman, hitting .410 with a .520 on-base percentage, leads the team with five home runs. She has driven in 27 runs and scored 18. Gina LoPiccolo, who is batting .323, has driven in 12 runs and scored 14 times.

Pam Barr (13-2) will start for Diamond Bar (18-5), which finished second in the Sierra League. Barr, who leads the team in hitting with a .410 average, will be pitching for a lineup consisting of six sophomores, one freshman, one junior and one senior.

“We’re just a young team,” said Dan O’Dell, Diamond Bar coach. “I hope we can put it together one more time.”