Granger Keeps Season Alive for Valencia, 2-0

Michele Granger has faced pressure throughout her high school career. Why should it have been in any different for the Valencia High School pitcher in what could have been her final high school game?

Friday at Buena Park, Granger was taunted by hostile spectators who tried their best to distract her. She was frustrated by Buena Park’s wisp of a pitcher, Shannon Akau, who struck Granger out three times.

But Granger wasn’t fazed. She not only pitched a two-hitter, she scored the winning run to lead Valencia over Buena Park, 2-0, in a nine-inning Southern Section 3-A quarterfinal.

The victory extends Granger’s stellar high school career at least one more game. Valencia (23-6) will face La Mirada, the fourth-seeded team in the 3-A, in Tuesday’s semifinal game.

Valencia’s victory did not come easily. Buena Park, which finished third in the Freeway League, proved that its earlier playoff victories over third-seeded Crescenta Valley and Ocean League champion Culver City were no fluke. And sophomore pitcher Akau showed that she will be a force to be reckoned with for the next two years.

Akau, almost a full foot shorter than 5-11 Granger, looked like David taking on Goliath.

She struck out 20, compared to 17 for Granger, and got Valencia’s second-, third- and fourth-place hitters to strike out three times each.

Akau (8-7), who gave up six hits, got into trouble in the fifth inning when she loaded the bases with only one out. But Akau struck out the next two batters to end the inning and struck out the side in both the sixth and seventh.

“Shannon Akau pitched the game of her life,” Buena Park Coach Debbie Allinson said. “She really rose to the occasion.”

But in the ninth, with two outs, Granger singled up the middle. Catcher Valerie Finley followed with what would have been a home run in any other park. But because the ball went off the Buena Park field and onto the school asphalt, it was ruled a ground-rule double, putting Finley at second base. But Granger was allowed to score because she had already rounded second before the ball hit the pavement.

Any questions about the ruling were put aside when Roseanna Garcia followed with a single to left field that scored Finley.

Granger (22-3), who gave up two hits on bunts and walked one, retired the side in the bottom of the ninth to clinch the victory.

Granger already has pitched a perfect game against Glendora, and struck out 23 against Bellflower in the playoffs. But the pitcher, who has a handful of national high school records and a college scholarship to California wrapped up, isn’t putting too much emphasis on winning a Southern Section title, the one achievement that has alluded her.

“If it happens, it happens,” she said. “If it doesn’t, I’m going to college. Seriously, I don’t like to press for things.”

She also said she wasn’t fazed by the taunting of the Buena Park spectators, who chanted, “Michele who?” and at one point threw a small ball on the field near the pitcher’s mound.

“It’s all part of the game,” she said. “Sometimes they just carry it a little too far.”

Valencia assistant coach Dean Yoshimura said: “I probably shouldn’t say this, but she pitches better when people are on her.”

For the second straight game, Coach Debbie Fassel was absent because of a family illness, so Yoshimura ran the team.