SOFTBALL : Martinez Nearly Perfect as Chula Vista Wins

Jennifer Martinez glared at the catcher’s mitt, went into her windmill delivery and . . . pop!

An instant later, ball struck mitt perfectly. Remember that word, for this was only warm-ups.

A little over an hour and eight innings later, Martinez and Chula Vista High were 1-0 winners over Mt. Carmel in the quarterfinal round of the San Diego Section 3-A softball playoffs.

Through the first 23 batters (7 2/3 innings), Martinez was indeed perfect. The 24th--Trish Maumausolo--grounded into the hole to the right of shortstop Kathy Slatinsky, who made a fine play, only to see her throw tip off first baseman Monica Medina’s mitt.

No matter. Catcher Lisa Wilson quickly eliminated Maumausolo on an attempted steal.

In the bottom half of the eighth, Wilson (two for four) lined a single up the middle that scored Slatinsky from second, and the Spartans (20-8) advanced to Thursday’s semifinal against Orange Glen at Kit Carson Park in Escondido. Mt. Carmel finished 20-5.

Martinez (12-3) finished with her second no-hitter, 13 strikeouts and endless praise from both sides.

“We knew in the first inning it was going to be tough to hit her,” said Jennifer Ortiz, Mt. Carmel’s freshman pitcher, who worked a three-hitter heading into the eighth.

“To throw a no-hitter against a team like that was something,” Chula Vista Coach Debi Daenzer said. “(Martinez) pitched an awesome game.”

Said Martinez, just a sophomore, “Even when I was warming up, I could feel I was going to have a good game. I could pick out a spot and hit it. My spin, my rise, everything was on.”

Martinez was on between the foul lines, too. She didn’t come close to walking a batter and started the game by striking out seven of the first nine.

Chula Vista loaded the bases in the bottom of the first and had runners on in five of the regulation seven innings, but each time was denied by Ortiz (17-3). She struck out Medina to end the first, and in the seventh got a nice double play when first baseman Stacy Thimjon dove and caught in the air a bunt attempt, got up and threw to first for the force.