Pony Softball Tournament : Fresno St. Eliminates Titans, Cal Poly Pomona

Going into Saturday’s quarterfinals of the eighth Pony softball tournament at Cal State Fullerton, only two teams have ever won the event--the Titans and Cal Poly Pomona.

Neither the Broncos nor Titans will be in today’s championship finals thanks to Fresno State.

The Bulldogs, who are co-ranked with Oklahoma State as the nation’s No. 6 team, started their day by upsetting second-ranked Fullerton, 1-0, in 10 innings in a first-round game. Later, Fresno State (26-6) beat the 10th-ranked Broncos, 4-1, in a quarterfinal game to advance to today’s 10 a.m. semifinals.

Kathy Mayer drove in Laura Macedo from third with two out in the 10th to give the Bulldogs the victory over the Titans. Melanie Parrent (15-4) pitched a one-hitter and struck out four to beat the Titans (29-8).

Macedo, who started the inning at second because of the international tie-breaker rule--which takes place beginning in the 10th inning--was advanced to third on Carie Dever’s single before she was driven home by Mayer.

The loss marked the first time the Titans have failed to advance to the Pony finals and it deprived them a chance at their third consecutive and fifth overall championship. In the two other years the Titans didn’t win the tournament, Pomona defeated them in the finals.

“I felt really good going into the 10th,” said Fresno State Coach Margie Wright, who saw her Bulldogs lose to Fullerton in the last two Pony championship games. “I felt we could score going into that situation (of starting the inning with a runner on second). And in the bottom of the inning, it was good that Melanie got the K (strikeout of Missy Coombes with one out and Valerie Van Kirk on second) when she did.”

Parrent’s strikeout of Coombes came after Val Douglas failed to advance Van Kirk by grounding back to Parrent. Parrent ended the game by retiring Debbie Schneider on a ground ball to shortstop Martha Noffsinger, a former Edison High School star.

Anjie Bryant (15-4), who allowed eight hits in her 10 innings of work, was the losing pitcher for Fullerton.

In the Bulldogs’ quarterfinal game against Pomona, Shelly Stokes keyed a three-run third with a two-run triple as Fresno State got all the runs it needed to hold off the Broncos.

Gena Strang had three hits for the Bulldogs, and Dever (11-3) stopped Pomona on five hits.

“I don’t think we looked at this as a chance to beat the teams that have dominated this tournament,” Wright said. “We just wanted to take each game one at a time, because any of these teams can beat you at any given time. Our pitchers pitched well and they had good location on their pitches, and we got the big hits when we needed them.”

Pomona managed only one rally against Dever when, with one out in the seventh, Kris Rokosz and Alison Stowell singled and Betsy Burr walked to load the bases. After Kandi Burke drove home Rokosz with a scoring fly, Dana Ramos, formerly of Fountain Valley High and Golden West College, grounded into a force play to end the game.

“Even with the big lead that we had, we still couldn’t take Cal Poly Pomona (24-7) for granted,” Wright said. “They’re the kind of team that could score a lot of runs in bunches.”

Pomona earned its spot in the quarterfinals by defeating UC Santa Barbara in its first-round game, 6-1.

Fresno State will play Arizona in today’s 10 a.m semifinal game. Texas A&M; will play the Long Beach State-Utah winner in an 11 a.m semifinal contest.

The winners of the semifinals will play in today’s championship game at 2 p.m.

In other quarterfinal contests:

Texas A&M; 5, Minnesota 3--Stacey Crainer hit a bases-loaded double in the seventh as the unranked Aggies (22-10) held off a late Minnesota rally.

Former Edison High star Julie Carpenter (19-10) pitched a four-hitter. Jenny Lindstrom (4-5) was the losing pitcher for the 20th-ranked Gophers (12-9).

Arizona 7, United States International University 0--The Wildcats scored six of their runs in the first inning, and Lisa Bautista (7-4) pitched a two-hitter.