Garden Grove Comes Up Short : 4-A Division: Three hits and two errors in sixth inning give Charter Oak a pair of runs and the title.

Unseeded Charter Oak took advantage of four Garden Grove errors to win the Southern Section 4-A championship softball game, 2-0, Friday at Mayfair Park.

The Chargers (22-4) strung together three hits in the sixth inning and, with the help of two Garden Grove errors, to score the two runs.

They collected four hits off Garden Grove pitcher Stephanie Smith, the Orange County strikeout leader with 323.

“The difference was our hitting,” said Charter Oak’s first-year Coach Joey Davis. “I’ve said every day this week that this is the best hitting team in the CIF. We’ve got two kids hitting .400 and three others hitting over .300.”

Kathi Evans and Kelly Hunt, the .400 hitters, were key players in the decisive sixth inning.

Pitcher Becky Champlin was safe on an error and Julie Kiluk reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced when Evans beat out a ground ball to short. Laurie Grey reached on an error to load the bases and Hunt singled to score Kiluk.

Shari Schultz then laid down a perfect bunt on a suicide squeeze play that scored Evans.

“I knew they were going to bunt when they had the runners on and the girls knew it,” Garden Grove Coach Paula Cervantes said. “But you get kind of caught up in the emotion and we got hand tied.

“I give them credit. They put the ball in play when they had to. Their speed is unbelievable. I think tonight you saw we were on base almost every inning, but our inability to execute the bunt hurt us. We just didn’t get the bunt down and didn’t get behind the runners when we needed to.”

Garden Grove stranded five runners and was thwarted in the fourth and seventh innings by spectacular plays by second baseman Kiluk.

Garden Grove’s Smith (25-5-1) struck out nine. Champlin (6-1) pitched a three-hitter with eight strikeouts. Garden Grove ends the season at 25-5-1.