SOUTHERN SECTION SOFTBALL : 4-A DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP GAME : Hart’s Bid Cut Short by Foothill

The Hart High softball team met its short-game match in the Southern Section 4-A Division final Friday night at Mayfair Park in Lakewood.

Foothill’s team speed and clutch hitting fueled its 5-2 victory over Hart. It was Foothill’s first section championship.

Foothill batters gave Hart’s defense a healthy dose of its own game plan. The Indians were forced to rush throws the entire game--and paid the price because of it more often than not.

Hart committed four errors, three of which contributed to runs.

Hart, champion of the Foothill League for the third consecutive season, finished 22-8.

“We made a few errors that hurt,” Hart Coach Al Weil said. “But they were pressure plays, tough plays.”

Five of Foothill’s nine hits were of the infield variety.

Foothill (26-7) scored all of its runs in the third and fourth innings with the help of Hart’s mistake-ridden, hurry-up defense.

In the fourth, with the score tied 2-2, Foothill parlayed three hits, one error and two wild pitches by sophomore right-hander Lauren Fenstemaker (19-6) into three runs for a 5-2 lead.

“Those runs kind of took us out of our game,” Weil said.

Actually, Hart never gave up. The Indians left runners on base in every inning but the first two. Eight of the nine stranded were left in scoring position.

In each of the final four innings, Hart had a runner in scoring position with one out.

Coming up with the big hit, however, was another story.

“We had our chances,” senior second baseman Jamie Dean said. “I didn’t come through when I should have.”

Hart scored first in the second inning on a run-scoring single by Cindy Abrams.

In the third, Foothill scored twice to take a 2-1 lead.

Christina Mazurie’s groundout drove in the tying run, and Kelley Green scored the go-ahead run when left fielder Amanda Deutschman dropped a fly ball.

Hart tied the score in the fourth on a throwing error that allowed Kim Neighbors to score from second.

But Foothill, which lost to Irvine in last year’s 4-A final, would not be denied in 1992.