Charter Oak Blanks Buena Park

Charter Oak High School scored in the top of the seventh to beat Buena Park, 1-0, in a Southern Section 4-A softball quarterfinal game Friday.

Charter Oak (23-4) will play Kennedy, a 1-0 winner over Villa Park, in a semifinal Tuesday. Buena Park finished the season 18-4-1.

Charter Oak’s Shari Schultz started the seventh with a bunt single. Shortstop Robin Thorn fielded the ball too late to catch Schultz, and Thorn’s hurried throw went out of play and allowed Schultz to reach second.

One out later, Raylene Tomasso bunted and pitcher Shannon Akau (17-4) tried to get the runner at third, but the throw was late.

But it looked a little better for Buena Park when Becky Champlin hit a line drive down the first-base line where Denise Wyman knocked it down and threw to Jeannette Rodriguez for the second out.

Julie Kiluk, the No. 9 batter, hit a chop-single over Akau’s head and in front of second baseman Rodriguez to score Schultz.

Charter Oak Coach Joey Davis said the winning run was all by design.

“Even though she’s a catcher, (Schultz) is one of our fastest players, so I had her bunt and I think that may have caught Buena Park a little by surprise,” Davis said. “Then we got good hitting from the bottom of the lineup.”

But Buena Park Coach Brenda Sapp said it was all just a mess.

“Our team came out flat and was off-guard the whole day,” Sapp said. “There was a lot of individual-type of play and that went against the team concept.”

Champlin (4-1) was the winning pitcher and also had two hits. Akau took the loss, striking out eight.