THE PREPS : Empire League Softball Roundup : Lohmann’s Grand Slam Sparks Katella’s Nine-Run First Inning

Freshman Tammy Lohmann highlighted a nine-run first inning with a grand slam Tuesday to lead Katella High School to a 10-0 Empire League softball victory over El Dorado at Boysen Park in Anaheim.

Katella (8-14, 4-3), which took advantage of three El Dorado (15-5, 5-2) errors to score its first five runs of the inning, extended its lead to 9-0 when, with the bases loaded, Lohmann smashed a 2-2 pitch over left fielder LaNea Jones’ head for an inside-the-park homer.

The game was ended with one out in the sixth inning after Rene Boswell drove home the Knights’ 10th run with a bases-loaded single, Boswell’s second hit of the game.

Under Empire League rules, games come to an end when a team builds a 10-run lead after five innings or later.

The Katella scoring outburst supported the pitching of Jennifer Clement, who allowed just two hits as she pitched to only two batters above the six-inning minimum to record the win.

“This isn’t my team,” said El Dorado Coach Mark Hillman. “This isn’t the way they’ve been playing all season. We give them three errors (in the first) and they score nine unearned runs. I don’t know where they were during the game, but my real team didn’t show up.”

The Golden Hawks’ miscuess gave no comfort to losing pitcher Keri Lucas (15-5), who retired just one of 10 batters she faced before she was replaced by Azsha Drennon following Lohmann’s grand slam.

“Keri’s a good pitcher, but on this day, we were able to get to her,” said Weyer, whose team finished the game with 12 hits. “We had a lot of people contribute for us and get some big hits.”

El Dorado got only two runners as far as second base in the game.

In other Empire League games:

Esperanza 2, Cypress 0--Rachel Veloz threw a two-hitter to pick up the victory. Host Esperanza made the most of one hit off Elisia Chad, scoring in the first and third innings. In all, Esperanza had three hits, two off relief pitcher Beth Howard, who went the final two innings.

Los Alamitos 1, Loara 0 (11 innings)--Dana Cipollone won the game with an RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the 11th. Shannon Skoglund (8-7) pitched a two-hitter for Los Alamitos.