HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL : USDHS Advances With Win Over San Marcos

The dust on Candice Fode’s jersey and the water in her eyes told the story.

San Marcos High’s hot-hitting center fielder had come up just short attempting a diving catch of Christina Tarlton’s sinking line drive minutes earlier. Jeanne King scampered home from third base with the winning run.

San Marcos (20-7) was eliminated from the San Diego Section 2-A softball playoffs, losing, 2-1, to second-seeded USDHS in 13 innings.

Fode, who was three for five and thought she had scored the winning run in the 11th, was not holding back tears of sadness. They were tears of anger and frustration.

“We should have won this game and there were a couple of bad calls,” said Fode, who was cut down at the plate trying to score on a ground ball, but argued that she was never tagged. “We really deserved to win the game. I’m totally frustrated.”

A look at the line score might explain why. The visiting Knights racked up 11 hits in the final eight innings--after USDHS starter and winner Jodie Schuetz had thrown a perfect game for the first five.

The Dons (20-4), however, had only one hit in the game--a questionable single by Kelli Sparks off the glove of first baseman Lisa Radtke--until Tarlton’s winning single with two out in the 13th.

USDHS finished with two hits and four errors. San Marcos pitchers Cynthia Luna and Charlene Reyes, who entered in the sixth, allowed two hits and no earned runs. But their offense stranded 12 runners over the final eight innings. They left the bases loaded in the seventh, when they tied the game, 1-1.

San Marcos left runners in scoring position in five of the six extra innings, while Reyes, a hard-throwing senior, mowed down the Dons in order in five of the seven innings she pitched.

In the top of the 13th, with runners at first and second and no outs, lead-runner Fode (who led off with a walk) was forced out a third on Kim Radtke’s bunt. Shannon Boulware (four hits), the second runner, was called out on the same play for leaving first base too early.

USDHS got the one break it needed in the bottom of the 13th. With none out, King reached on a fielder’s choice. Two outs later, leadoff hitter Tarlton hit a low liner toward center as Fode dived at the edge of the infield to catch it, but only trapped the ball.

“We’ve won close games before, and it feels good,” Tarlton said. “We’ve got four freshmen on the team (Schuetz and Tarlton included), and we’ve really improved.”

“I knew she was going to hit the ball my way; it was just a matter of timing,” said Fode, one of seven underclassmen in the Knights’ lineup. “I’ve never seen Charlene throw so well.”