Lauby Winds Up Her Season Firing Blanks at Opponents

For the El Toro High School softball team, Paige Lauby was the right person in the right place at the right time in the 3-A championship game Saturday.

Lauby, The Times’ Athlete of the Week, pitched her eighth consecutive shutout, striking out 12 and walking three, to lead El Toro to a 1-0 victory in eight innings over Don Lugo in the 3-A title game.

(Lauby also was named The Times’ Softball Player of the Year. See Page C11.)

In a 1-0 victory over Saddleback in the 3-A semifinal Tuesday, Lauby had 15 strikeouts, walked three and allowed three hits.

“I was throwing inside early, but then they started driving the ball over the fence but in foul territory,” Lauby said of Saturday’s victory. “So I started using the rise outside and I got them to strike out and pop up. I think they were looking for the pitch inside.”

That wasn’t her only adjustment. During her delivery, Lauby tends to add a crow-hop, an illegal extra hop that usually adds velocity to the pitch.

Saturday, Lauby said she needed to concentrate on avoiding the crow-hop.

“There were all those umpires out there,” she said. “I was thinking about keeping my foot on the ground and that slows down the pitches a little bit.” Lauby used to crow-hop purposely when it was an unenforced rule.

“Before, my pitching coach (Ron LeFebvre) had me purposely hopping--it was more my natural motion and he wants his pitchers to use their natural motion,” Lauby said. “We worked on keeping my foot down this season, though, so I didn’t get called for it that often. But there were four umpires in the championship game.”

Next season, Lauby will attend the University of North Carolina on a full scholarship.

Although her parents attended UCLA, which won the NCAA softball championship this season, Lauby never considered becoming a Bruin because she was set on attending school outside the state.

“I didn’t want to stay in California,” Lauby said. “One of my teachers always said that we should leave California because if we did, we would probably end up coming back. He wanted us to see other things.”

TOP PERFORMERS

Janet Miyahara took over the pitching duties in top of the fifth inning with a runner on third and two out for Marina in the Southern Section 5-A title game. Miyahara struck out Erin Mutch to end the threat. Later, Miyahara hit a fly ball to center field, which was misplayed, allowing the winning run to score. Teammate Christa Yorke singled in the ninth and scored the winning run.

Paige Lauby

El Toro High School

* Position: Pitcher

* Height, Weight, Class: 5-10, 145, Senior.

* Last Week: In the 3-A title game Lauby struck out 12, walked three and allowed five hits in eight innings to lead El Toro to a 1-0 victory. In Tuesday’s semifinal, Lauby had 15 strikeouts, walked three and allowed three hits in a 1-0 victory over Saddleback.

* Season: Lauby is 16-2 with 249 strikeouts and a 0.05 earned-run average.