Granger Strikes Out 40, but It Isn’t Enough

Even the most objective in the crowd cringed. It was happening to Michele Granger again.

Granger, Valencia High School’s softball pitcher, had put in a monumental two-day performance in the Southern Section 3-A semifinal game against La Mirada, keeping her high school career alive with each pitch she threw.

She struck out 38 batters on Tuesday in a scoreless game that was suspended after 23 innings because of darkness.

And when the game resumed at Cerritos College on Wednesday, she promptly struck out two more to bring her game total to 40, her season strikeout total to 449, and her career total to 1,635.

But in the bottom of the 25th, 20 minutes after the game restarted, La Mirada’s Robin Manestar reached when Valencia second baseman Olivia Garcia, covering first base, dropped the ball. Then La Mirada pitcher Dena Mullins got on base when Valencia first baseman Danette Davis first bobbled Mullins’ sacrifice bunt, then overthrew first to allow Manestar to go to third.

Like the sequel to a B-movie, there was little doubt what was going to happen next.

Rose Garces, with two strikes against her, got a base hit down the left-field line, scoring Manestar from third and giving La Mirada a 1-0 victory, ending the most outstanding pitching career in high school softball.

The victory gave second-seeded La Mirada its first trip to the 3-A final. The Matadores (26-2) will face top-seeded Kennedy in Friday’s championship game at Mayfair Park (8 p.m.).

La Mirada received an outstanding effort from junior pitcher Mullins (20-2), who struck out 26, gave up 10 hits and retired the six batters she faced Wednesday.

“In a game like this, when both teams are tired, it’s going to come down to mistakes,” Valencia Coach Debbie Fassel said.

It was the third consecutive year that Valencia, which finished the season 23-7, was eliminated in the semifinals because of errors. Last year, the Tigers lost to Diamond Bar on an unearned run in the 15th inning.

Though many of her teammates wept, Granger, who gave up 5 hits in the 5 hour 6 minute game, handled the final the way she has handled both the lows and the high points of her career. Matter-of-factly.

“I’m always disappointed to lose,” Granger (22-4) said. “But even if we won, you wouldn’t see me jumping all over the place.”

Granger, who has signed a letter of intent with California, holds national records in single-season strikeouts, career strikeouts, career no-hitters and has tied the records for single-season no-hitters and consecutive strikeouts in a game. She has unofficially set records for both career and single-season perfect games.

And while she has won championships on the national and international level, including a gold medal at the Pan-American games, her team has never won a Southern Section title.

But Granger never put much emphasis on that goal. And, when it was no longer possible, she kept it in perspective.

“I thought about it last night and figured if we were lucky, we were lucky,” Granger said. “A game like this is going to come down to mistakes.”

The loss may have actually been harder on her teammates than on Granger.

“I think there’s a lot of added pressure,” Fassel said. “There has been so much written about her accomplishments and the elusive high school one, it puts pressure on the kids. . . . Now we’ll be back to normal.”

Granger has always felt any loss was her own fault, even if caused by an error, because she shouldn’t have allowed the ball to be in play in the first place.

“I let my team down,” she said. “Obviously, I’m not real happy.”

MICHELE GRANGER’S RECORD

Year W-L SO No-Hit 1985 11-7 301 8 1986 16-9 376 8 1987 22-7 509 11 1988 22-4 449 9 Totals 71-27 1635 36

Note: Granger holds national single-season and career records for strikeouts, no-hitters and perfect games. She had 9 perfect games in her career, with a one-season best of 3.