HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Kops Steals Spotlight in Granite Hills’ Win

Kerry Kops of Granite Hills will remember Wednesday’s softball game against Grossmont for much more than driving in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning.

She will retain more than the 3-2 final, and the sight of her game-winning line drive piercing the right-center field gap, allowing Shauna Hover to score from first.

Kops, a junior third baseman, will look back on Wednesday as the first time in her life she had been removed from a starting lineup for a designated hitter.

Did that upset her?

“Yes, it did,” said Kops, who snapped a three-game hitting slump. “Very much.”

It was a game neither side will soon forget, though Eagle Coach Cookie Sullivan missed most of it.

Granite Hills (19-6-1, 2-2) needed the victory or risked losing sight of idle Monte Vista (14-5-1, 4-0) and Grossmont (17-5, 2-2) in the Grossmont 3-A League race.

After Grossmont went up on triples by Jolie Oliver and Jennie Matthews, Granite Hills took a 2-1 lead on two errors by losing pitcher Oliver (15-4), a walk, a controversial call at first on the second error with two outs, and a subsequent flare single by Shannon Dahl.

Moments later, Oliver’s sister, Deidra Oliver, singled, went to second on an error, to third on a passed ball and scored the tying run on a “crow-hop”--a balk--called on Rebekah Kilpatrick.

“In nine years of pitching I have never crow-hopped,” said Kilpatrick (14-5). “Never.”

Coach Sullivan believes Kilpatrick still hasn’t, but that belief eventually got her ejected.