PREP SOFTBALL ROUNDUP : Softball Coaches Torn Over Loyalty to Teams, Strikers

Early Wednesday morning, San Pedro High softball Coach Tony Dobra and Carson Coach Rosie Martinez, along with several thousand other striking L.A. City teachers, met their colleagues on the campus picket lines.

That afternoon Dobra and Martinez met again as opposing coaches in the quarterfinals of the L.A. City 4-A playoffs. San Pedro won, 19-0, but the strike was very much on the minds of both coaches, who agreed to move the contest to Friendship Park from San Pedro High to avoid crossing the picket line.

“Instead of violating that line, we moved to another place,” Dobra said. “We weren’t going to cross because we’re teachers before we’re coaches. There was no way we were going to cross that line, and we’ll continue to walk the line tomorrow.”

According to both coaches, L.A. City athletic officials said if the teams did not play, the game would be forfeited. Since they are in the playoffs, a forfeit would mean the end of the season for both squads.

“We either play or the season is over,” Martinez said. “We’re trying to look at this as separate from the strike, and we want to play this game.”

Both admitted reservations about fielding teams and their actions might be interpreted as breaking ranks.

“I had a lot of reservations about playing,” said Martinez, who has not attended a Carson practice since the strike began three days ago. “No matter what you do, you’re going to get a mixed reaction. Some people will say you should play, others will tell you shouldn’t.

“But the girls just put in too many hours to not have an opportunity to play in the playoffs.”

Said Dobra, who also has not attended practice since the strike: “I don’t know what the reaction will be until I go back in there tomorrow.”

Nevertheless, it was San Pedro (19-5) that took care of business on the field and advanced to the semifinals against San Fernando next Wednesday at South Gate Park. San Fernando scored a 1-0 upset over second-seeded Sylmar.

The Pirates took a 3-0 lead into the fourth inning, then exploded for 11 runs by sending 14 batters to the plate and taking advantage of six hits and three Carson errors. In the fifth, the Pirates sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five more runs.

Meanwhile, pitcher Meagan Moore was corralling the Colts, who managed just four hits off the San Pedro starter. Moore (17-4) struck out eight and walked just one.

“One thing I can always be sure of, even if we had a three-month layoff, is that I don’t have to worry about Meagan Moore,” Dobra said. “Our goal was to take them out early. It took us a little while to get going, but we managed to do it.”

The Pirates collected 12 hits, with Moore, Jstone Vines, Kathy Eldridge, Debbie Elgin and Lori Noceti leading the way with two apiece. Moore and Noceti had three RBIs each.

Carson (10-9) was paced by Claudia Lopez’s two singles.

Banning 6, Kennedy 2--Laurie Gutierrez drove in three runs and Sharlene Tipeni collected two RBIs to power the Pilots in the City 4-A quarterfinals at Granada Hills Park.

Banning (21-2) will play top-seeded El Camino Real, an 8-4 winner over Granada Hills, in the semifinals Wednesday at South Gate Park. The Pilots scored two runs in the first inning on a two-out double by Gutierrez and added four in the third. Gutierrez had an RBI single and Tipeni knocked in two runs with a triple.

Pitcher Kricket Kern gave up seven hits and improved to 16-2.