SOUTHERN SECTION 3-A SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS : University Gets Help From Errors to Win

As far back as University softball Coach Bob Bernal remembers--and he goes back 11 seasons with the team--the Trojans had never made it to the Southern Section playoffs.

Now they are two victories away from winning a championship.

The Trojans (21-10) continued their march through the upper bracket of the Division 3-A tournament with a 6-0 victory over Quartz Hill in a quarterfinal game Friday at University. The Trojans will play Woodbridge, a 1-0 winner over Walnut, in Tuesday’s semifinals.

Fourth-seeded Quartz Hill (21-3), a team that reached the 3-A finals last year, had a long day that started with a 125-mile trip south. University got nine hits and took advantage of eight Rebel errors to pull off the upset.

“We just came out and hit her (Quartz Hill starter Heather Meyer),” Bernal said. “I thought she’d be a little bit faster.”

Meyer has been fighting tendinitis in her right elbow, and it showed.

The Trojans scored single runs in the first three innings and three in the fifth, and left-hander Michele Ponce (17-5) limited Quartz Hill to four hits. It was her fourth consecutive shutout.

University scored its first run when Heather Campbell bunted with one out in the first inning, and Meyer threw the ball into right field for a four-base error. Lakita Johnson then opened the second inning with a line single to left field and scored when left fielder Sara Higginson misplayed the ball for a three-base error.

In the third, University’s Heather Toomey reached on a bunt single--one of three bunt singles for the Trojans--but was forced at second by Jenny Whiteley. Campbell sacrificed Whiteley to second, and Whiteley scored moments later on a double by Ponce.

The Trojans applied the finishing touches in the fifth.

Whiteley walked and scored when a pickoff attempt by catcher Lolita Allen sailed into right field. Campbell then bunted safely and took second on the play on a throwing error by third baseman Donna Villa. Pinch-runner Amy Todd replaced Campbell at second and moved to third on a single by Ponce. Todd later scored on a single by Johnson and Ponce on a fielder’s choice grounder by Liz Whiteley.

In another 3-A game:

Woodbridge 1, Walnut 0--Alison Johnsen scored on a wild pitch in the top of the first inning and right-hander Alison Ward (17-2) made the run stand up with a two-hitter for Woodbridge (28-4).

The Warriors, seeded first in the division, will meet Sea View League rival University in the semifinals Tuesday.