Rome Rises to Conquer La Reina

The La Reina High softball team could write a book about its Southern Section 1-A Division semifinal playoff game against defending-champion St. Joseph of Santa Maria.

Call it “The Rise and Fall of the Third Strike.”

Pitcher Julie Rome certainly gave the Regents something to write home about. Buoyed by her riseball, Rome held La Reina hitless as St. Joseph recorded a 2-0 victory Tuesday at Thousand Oaks Community Center.

“That was the best pitching I’ve ever seen,” La Reina leadoff batter Heidi Heinl said.

“I’ve never seen anybody who throws that hard, and I couldn’t figure out her riser. Usually, I think you can tell when a riser is coming, but this time . . .”

This time, Heinl could not. And she wasn’t the only one.

Rome, a junior right-hander, was bidding for a perfect game going into the seventh inning. Until Heinl reached on an error to lead off the seventh, Rome had retired 18 hitters in a row, striking out 14--all swinging.

After Heinl reached base, La Reina’s Carolyn Russo went down swinging at Rome’s riser, and Erin Sweeney and Christa Grenat each looked at called third strikes as Rome (21-6) closed her fourth no-hitter of the season with a flourish--and a season-high 17 strikeouts.

“Her riser was really good,” said Sweeney, who struck out all three times she faced Rome. “Every time we got up there, we were swinging at her riser. We’ve had experience hitting the riseball, but hers was just faster than anybody else’s we’ve seen this season.”

Rome overshadowed sophomore right-hander Sherri Sisco’s four-hitter for La Reina (19-6).

“It was a tough loss,” said Sisco (16-5), who struck out five and walked four. “We tried everything, but she was good. She’s the best pitcher we’ve seen.”

St. Joseph (22-8), which has suffered all of its losses against 4-A teams, snapped a scoreless tie with two unearned runs in the sixth.

Julie Grennan reached second on a two-base throwing error by Sweeney, advanced to third on an infield single by Raquel Fleming and came home on a wild pitch for the Knights’ first run.

Mandi Ferrari, pinch-running for Fleming, stole second and went to third on the run-scoring wild pitch. Ferrari scored the Knights’ final run on a passed ball.