PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE SOFTBALL ROUNDUP : Trabuco Hills Can’t Escape Its Mistakes

Helped by six Trabuco Hills High School errors, Woodbridge bunted its way to a 5-3 Pacific Coast League softball victory at Trabuco Hills.

Woodbridge (15-10 and 7-1 in league) avenged a first-round loss to Trabuco Hills (18-7, 7-1) and moved into a tie for first place in the PCL. Woodbridge has won eightconsecutive league titles.

The Warriors won Thursday with the bunt--five of them, three of which were mishandled by Trabuco Hills for errors.

One fumbled bunt allowed leadoff batter Mary Dugard, who had reached on a walk, to score in the first inning. A three-error fifth inning, coupled with two hits, resulted in three more runs for Woodbridge. Another mishandled bunt led to a Woodbridge run in the sixth.

“It was the little ball that got the job done,” Woodbridge Coach Eric Bangs said. “Our job was to attack the corners with the bunt. Their strength is totally up the middle.”

Trabuco Hills Coach Mike Flanegin had a different explanation. “We stunk,” he said, and not just with handling of bunts. “I don’t think that’s been there all along. We were 12-6 before league. You don’t beat all those teams being vulnerable to the bunt.”

Then why the poor performance?

“Overconfidence,” he said. “The problem is we play in a weak league. You go a round and you don’t play anybody, and then you have one game where you have to play somebody. The players have to understand that they have to dig down and play the ball they are capable of in those situations.”

Trabuco Hills not only fumbled away the ball on bunts, it let scoring opportunities slip away. The Mustangs left nine runners on base, including a runner at third in the first, fourth and fifth innings.

Trabuco Hills had the bases loaded in the fourth with one out and could not capitalize. After Emily Leckey scored the Mustangs’ first run with the help of a walk and an error in the fifth, Trabuco Hills had runners on first and third with cleanup batter Christy Lunceford up and couldn’t score.

“There were a couple of key outs,” Bangs said. “Getting Christy out with people on base twice was key because she is one of their key RBI people. We kept Linda (Lunceford, who leads the county with 31 stolen bases) off the bases a couple of times, and Trabuco Hills played loose in the field and threw the ball away at third a couple of times.”

Trabuco Hills rallied in the sixth, scoring two runs to trail, 5-3, but with Brianna Burkman on third, Lunceford popped up hitting left-handed to end the inning. “I probably made a mistake batting Linda left-handed,” said Flanegin, her stepfather. “I should have let her hit right-handed and poke it out.”

Woodbridge’s Alisha Nelson (12-9) pitched a six-hitter with five strikeouts and three walks. Burkman, Trabuco Hills’ freshman pitcher (11-6), had a three-hitter with seven strikeouts and three walks.

In another league game:

Laguna Hills 23, Costa Mesa 7--Jennifer Milo had two hits and four RBIs, and Lesley Haynes had two hits and scored four runs for visiting Laguna Hills (5-15, 2-6).