SOUTHERN SECTION 5-A SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS : Fountain Valley Beats St. Joseph, 3-2, in Nine Innings

Fountain Valley High School’s softball team shut out Lakewood St. Joseph twice this season, but the Barons had a tough time beating the Jesters a third time.

Fountain Valley (22-6) needed nine innings Thursday to come away with a 3-2 victory in the Southern Section 5-A quarterfinals.

St. Joseph (14-1) sent the game into extra innings when pitcher Bev Stiglbauer hit a towering home run to left center in the bottom of the seventh.

After Fountain Valley went ahead, 3-1, in the top of the ninth, St. Joseph scored once in the bottom of the inning. But once was not enough.

“To have them come back like that, like I told the kids, may be a blessing in disguise,” Fountain Valley Coach Cary Baker said. “We know the next two games are going to be as tough as this one.

“It’s easy to say after we won, but now that it’s over, I’m glad we had a tough game again. I mean we had to play good. I tell you what. They didn’t give up.”

Many people didn’t expect St. Joseph to get as far as it did after the graduation of the Angelus League Most Valuable Player, Lisa Fernandez, who’s now at UCLA.

“I think a lot of people counted us out this whole year,” Coach Debbie Haley said, “but we battled back and we didn’t quit. So this team has to be proud of itself, and I’m proud of them.”

Fountain Valley scored twice with one hit and the help of three St. Joseph errors in the top of the ninth.

St. Joseph came back with three hits, the last of which scored Suzanne Pickett. But with two outs and the tying and winning runs on first and second, Delores Sias struck out to end the game.

“This is not the St. Joseph (team) we saw at the beginning of the year,” Baker said. “The pitcher’s a lot better than she showed us the first time. She hit the ball hard.”

Stiglbauer (10-8) pitched a four-hitter with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Fountain Valley’s Rae Rice (18-2) was even more impressive, pitching a six-hitter with 19 strikeouts.

St. Joseph played better defense than it had in either of the first two meetings, but Jester errors in the ninth made the difference. Fountain Valley hit three high-choppers in the inning, all of which resulted in errors.

“I think we scared a couple of kids into hitting (the ball) on the ground,” Baker said. “We were on them pretty hard at one time. We said, ‘You’ve got to make contact, especially when you get the bases loaded.’ ”

Haley: “Fountain Valley did exactly what they had to do. They put the ball down hard on the infield and we had to come up with the play. You have to give them the credit.”