SOUTHERN COLLEGE SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : 3-A : Flores Pitches Sunny Hills to Title : She Loses No-Hitter in Seventh on Diamond Bar Single

Ruby Flores lost her no-hitter Friday night with two out in the seventh, but that was all she and the Sunny Hills High School Lancers lost.

A 4-0 victory over Diamond Bar in front of 750 at Mayfair Park gave Sunny Hills the Southern Section 3-A softball championship at Lakewood. The Lancers (27-5) didn’t allow a run in five playoff games, outscoring their opponents, 23-0.

Flores (18-2), a junior, pitched a no-hitter through 6 innings, giving up the only hit--a single--to Bonnie Ebenkamp. She then struck out Shannon Stec on a changeup to end the game. Flores finished with 13 strikeouts.

Flores allowed only four hits in five playoff games, pitching a no-hitter and four one-hitters.

Sunny Hills scored two runs on three hits in the first inning of a game that started two hours late because the 2-A championship went to extra innings.

With one out, catcher Suzanne Steinke singled to right field, advancing to second on a passed ball. Catherine Stedman, the shortstop, hit a grounder up the middle that advanced Steinke to third, with Stedman going to second as Diamond Bar held the runner at third.

Steinke scored on Gina LoPiccolo’s ground out, with Stedman scoring when Erin McKenney beat out an infield single. Flores grounded out for the third out.

The Diamond Bar half of the inning was hardly so fruitful: Flores struck out the first three batters, all of them swinging.

Flores went on to strike out eight of the first nine batters, getting the other out on Ebenkamp’s infield popup.

Sunny Hills added a run in the sixth when Flores’ sacrifice fly scored LoPiccolo, who reached on an error and went to third on a single by McKenney.

The Lancers scored their final run in the seventh. A single by Stedman drove in Debbie Tateyama, who had reached on a fielder’s choice and went to second on a hit batter. Diamond Bar twice advanced a runner as far as second base.

In the fourth, the Brahmas got to second on a fielder’s choice and two errors, but Flores got out of the inning by striking out Katherine Nemeth. With two out in the sixth, Flores walked Darlene Ferrari, who stole second. But Flores again got out of the inning, striking out Julie Hensel.

The Sunny Hills team had lounged along the right-field fence and Diamond Bar along the left-field fence as Woodbridge and Laguna Hills played a 14-inning scoreless tie. The game was declared a tie at the end of the first inning beyond three hours.

The Lancers had warmed up between 6:30 and 7:30 in the expectation of an 8 p.m. start. Once darkness fell, though, there was little possibility of warming up again--there were no lighted fields other than the game field. Cathy Williams, Sunny Hills coach, called a brief team meeting, but mostly the teams watched and waited.

The first pitch came 45 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.