Big Inning Buries Hart in Softball Quarterfinals, 11-2

It was an inning like no other experienced by the Hart High softball team this season.

Fontana scored seven runs in the fifth inning to fuel an 11-2, come-from-behind victory in a Southern Section 4-A Division playoff quarterfinal Thursday at Fontana.

The Steelers (16-7), champions of the Citrus Belt League, parlayed four timely hits, two errors and two walks into a 7-2 lead in the fifth.

“This was very uncharacteristic for us,” Hart Coach Al Weil said. “We don’t usually give up that many runs.”

Indeed, the top-seeded Indians (21-5) had outscored opponents, 201-50, and had not allowed more than six runs in any game.

Hart led, 2-0, after two innings, and senior right-hander Krissy Carpenter (20-5) had allowed just two hits through four innings. She had retired 10 of the 11 batters she faced before the disastrous fifth.

Hart had played only twice before on a grass infield, and it showed. Christine Testa’s leadoff single took a bad hop past shortstop Heather Medearis on the uneven and bumpy grass. Back-to-back errors and a single enabled Fontana to take a 3-2 lead.

Fontana scored two runs on two wild pitches and another two runs on a single and a double.

To make matters worse for the Indians, Fontana came right back with a four-run sixth inning on two hits and three errors.

Hart, which outhit Fontana, 9-8, had 13 baserunners, but three were thrown out on attempted steals of second, three others were thrown out at the plate and another was gunned down when she tried to go to second on an error.

“We’re gonna go,” Weil said. “If she can throw us out, that’s great. We’ll take our chances. We’ll live and die by running the bases.”

Jamie Dean and Lisa Kelley each went two for three for Hart, the Foothill League champion.