SOUTHERN SECTION 3-A CHAMPIONSHIP : Kennedy Gets Only Three Hits, but That’s Enough to Win, 1-0

Kennedy High School managed to scrape together just three hits against La Mirada in the Southern Section 3-A softball championship Friday night at Mayfair Park in Lakewood.

The hits, all singles, came at the right time and fell in the right places, giving Kennedy a 1-0 victory over La Mirada.

With two outs in the sixth inning, Suzie Berdis singled to center to break up La Mirada pitcher Dena Mullins’ no-hitter. Mullins had allowed only one baserunner, Cheryl Longeway, who struck out but reached first base when catcher Rose Garces dropped the third strike in the second inning.

After Berdis’ single, Kris Vucurevic followed with an infield single. Laurie Graper then hit a smash past second baseman Robin Manestar, scoring Berdis from second. Mary Gyde popped to third to end the inning, but the one run proved to be enough for Kennedy (25-5).

La Mirada, which came into the game as the 3-A No. 2 seed behind Kennedy, finished at 26-3.

Longeway recorded her fifth shutout in the playoffs to pick up the victory, her 23rd against 3 losses. She had seven strikeouts and gave up three hits and had to work out of several jams in the early innings.

Mullins (20-3) took the loss, but struck out 12 and gave up just the 3 hits.

“At least we scored,” Sue Hall, Kennedy coach, said. “I thought we would score more. (The run scored) on a hit and run. The girls came through. The key thing was that they came through on the hit and run and that was the game.”

La Mirada got a runner, Garces, to third in the first inning with two outs, but Longeway managed to get out of trouble by getting Jenine Mobayed to ground to shortstop.

In the second, the Matadores got another runner to third, but couldn’t score.

This time, Denise Funderburg--who led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice and reached third on a passed ball--was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a passed ball.

In the bottom of the sixth, trailing, 1-0, La Mirada got the first two runners on base with no outs. But Longeway worked out of the jam once again.

She struck out Stacy Bresee, then got Nicole Stelter to pop up and finished the threat by getting Mobayed to ground out.

“The hits just didn’t fall when they had to,” Patty Gasso, La Mirada coach, said. “We had runners on base, but we couldn’t get the key hits.

“They (Kennedy) beat us on those three hits. They were three legitimate hits up the middle.”

Longeway said she knew the Fighting Irish would score eventually.

“It was just a matter of time,” said Longeway, a freshman.

Hall said Mullins’ offspeed pitches caused the Kennedy batters problems.

“I expected us to overpower them, but we didn’t,” Hall said. Indeed, Mullins had retired 13 batters in a row going back to the dropped third strike in the second, before Berdis’ single.

Longeway, meanwhile, managed to keep La Mirada off the scoreboard.

“They had a lot of chances to score runs,” Hall said. ‘They kept getting runners on in scoring position and we kept getting out of it.”