SOUTHERN SECTION SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS : ROUNDUP : Irvine Stops Sunny Hills in 16 Innings

All great pitching duels must finally come to an end.

Thursday afternoon at Sunny Hills, it took Irvine’s Jennifer Brundage 16 innings to subdue the Lancers’ Bernie Fancuberta, 3-0, in a three-hour 10-minute marathon for a quarterfinal victory in the Southern Section 4-A playoffs.

Brundage (19-2) struck out 17, walked two, gave up four hits and retired the last 24 Sunny Hills batters until Irvine (23-3) could push three runs across in the top of the 16th inning to bring the defensive struggle to a conclusion.

Fancuberta (9-8), a sophomore, struck out four, walked none and had Irvine’s heavy-hitting lineup batting into the dirt all afternoon. Lancer shortstop Shannan Brown made 14 assists and two putouts to highlight the defensive effort.

“I think we surprised a lot of people today,” Sunny Hills Coach Kari Boothroyd said. “We were the underdog. You can’t give my team enough credit. They didn’t give up. Even though we lost, this was our best game of the season by far.”

After threatening with the bases loaded in the ninth inning and stranding runners on second and third in the 14th inning, Irvine, which left 14 runners on base, finally wore Fancuberta down in the 16th.

Following one-out singles by Carly Girton and Lisa Goodwin, Alleah Poulson drove in the game’s first run with a single to center, scoring Girton from third. Carrie Caudill’s single scored Goodwin, and Poulson came home on Angela Wolf’s bouncer to Brown.

The loss left Sunny Hills with a 16-11 season record.