National Bobby Sox Softball Tournament : Fullerton Hills Advances With 7-1 Win Over Madera

Fullerton Hills scored four runs in the top of the sixth inning en route to a 7-1 victory over Madera in the semifinals of the Bobby Sox national softball tournament Wednesday at George Billis Park in Buena Park.

Bernie Fancuberta (3-0) pitched a one-hitter, with six strikeouts and two walks.

Fullerton Hills, the only unbeaten team in the tournament, will play in the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of tonight’s 8 o’clock game between Madera and the winner of today’s Bellflower-Navajo of San Diego game.

Fullerton Hills, which led, 2-1, going into the sixth, extended its lead to 5-1 on run-scoring singles by Deborah Hargrave, Kate Foster and Jennifer Vandyk. The fourth run of the inning scored on Renee Darke’s bases-loaded walk.

Fullerton Hills added a run in the seventh.

Fullerton Hills took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. With one out, Amber Shepherd walked and advanced to second on Francisca Cervantez’s wild pitch. After Anne Bialowas walked, Shepherd advanced to third and Bialowas went to second on catcher Kortni Murphree’s passed ball.

Gina Thompson then hit a ground ball toward Madera second baseman Brandi Encinas, who threw the ball over Murphree’s head to score Shepherd and Bialowas.

Fancuberta gave up her only hit in the fifth on Nicole Zenger’s leadoff double to left. Zenger, who advanced to third on a passed ball, then scored on Stefaine Reid’s infield out.

Navajo beat Tucson, 4-3, Wednesday, to advance.

In the losers’ bracket, Bellflower survived a late North Irvine rally for a 5-4 victory.

North Irvine, which trailed, 5-1, going into the seventh, narrowed the score to 5-3 on Danny Rodriguez’s two-run double with two outs. After Bellflower pitcher Cindy Dykstra issued a bases-loaded walk to Annette Smith, Irvine pitcher Jessica Montgomery hit into a force play to end the game.

North Irvine scored its first run in the top of the first on Smith’s bases-loaded infield out. Bellflower then used three hits and a run-scoring infield out to score two runs in the first.

Bellflower, which will play the Navajo at 6 p.m. today for the right to face Madera in a semifinal game two hours later.

Earlier, Rodriguez scattered five hits and struck out five while Smith doubled home two runs to give North Irvine a 5-2 win over Cerritos in another losers’ bracket game.

North Irvine, which scored unearned runs in the top of the first and second innings, scored two in the third on Smith’s double.

Cerritos, which handed North Irvine its only loss in the tournament, 11-1, in a second-round game on Sunday, scored in the third inning on Debbie Brown’s run-scoring double and Liz Avelas’ RBI single.