Wilson Plays Key Roles for Los Alamitos

She is not the star pitcher.

She is not the slugger with the big numbers.

She is not the focal point of the team.

Debbie Wilson is not the one to be taken lightly, however.

She has sparked Los Alamitos’ rise in the Southern Section Division I softball playoffs right into tonight’s 7:30 p.m. championship game at Lakewood’s Mayfair Park. She also has been largely responsible for their 24-3 record.

Playing first base almost exclusively the last 12 games, her regular season included a .281 batting average, seven RBIs and 10 runs. But it would be difficult for Coach Jami Shannon to find fault with Wilson’s overall contribution: With Wilson on the mound, the Griffins won.

When she could have been working on her hitting, she had to pitch. When she wasn’t pitching, she was playing defense. While she could have been moping about her hitting, she instead waited for an opportunity to present itself. And it did. Twice.

In the last two games, a 22-inning, 1-0 victory over second-seeded Marina in the quarterfinals, and in Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over third-seeded Camarillo, Wilson came through when the game was on the line, ending a marathon with a bouncer to short, and realizing a dream by slamming a double over the left fielder’s head.

Her seventh-inning hit against Camarillo’s Laura Richardson was Los Alamitos’ only hit, yet it was enough to send the Griffins to the final for the first time.

Not bad for a first baseman now batting .256 whose greatest contribution this season had been her defensive play and pitching in the early going.

Wilson, a junior, was 10-0 with an 0.29 earned-run average. She became the staff ace when it was learned that Carrie Dolan wouldn’t be out for the team. Dolan has since joined the squad and will pitch tonight against Simi Valley, the top-seeded team in the division and ranked second in the state.

But Wilson was no slouch as a replacement. She had six shutouts, including victories over Woodbridge and Garden Grove, and finished off Mater Dei in the championship game of the Cypress Tournament, entering in relief and getting out of a bases loaded, no-out jam in the fourth.

Woodbridge was top-seeded in Division III, and Mater Dei was fourth-seeded in Division I.

When Dolan was injured in an automobile accident before the first-round playoff game against Garden Grove, Wilson pitched three shutout innings before her arm got sore.

The last thing she expected this season was to pitch as much as she did, but Los Alamitos learned an important skill behind her--how to win.

“Winning the two tournaments and winning league were the most satisfying things about the year,” Wilson said. “At the beginning of the year, our team didn’t have the experience, and when we won them, it was a good feeling and everyone felt, ‘OK, we won the tournaments, let’s win league.’ Then we won (the Empire) league, and now it’s, ‘OK, let’s win CIF.’ ”

Los Alamitos’ success without Dolan was surprising.

“I had no idea I would do that well,” Wilson said. “I started pitching full-time when school ball started again because I only played first base for the travel team (the Batbusters), and pitching isn’t what I was looking at. I had good defense behind me and it helped me a lot.

“I had no idea I was going to be successful. I thought they were going to hit me. I thought I would give up a run here and there and it would be no big deal, but as games kept going, and I wasn’t giving up runs, my intensity as a pitcher increased as I got more into it.”

The last time she pitched was during the summer, and she had taken only the occasional pitching lesson.

When Dolan rejoined to the team with a doctor’s permission--she fractured her arm--it changed the Griffins’ attitude. It also meant Wilson moved back to first base.

“When we realized we wouldn’t have Carrie, it was pretty somber,” Wilson said. “So when we did get her, everything looked a lot better. It boosted our confidence and everything has been incredible since.”

Dolan and Los Alamitos’ defense has allowed only one run in 79 1/3 innings, and no runs in the playoffs, matching Simi Valley and pitcher Sara Griffin, who gave up only one earned run in 172 innings this season.

But Los Alamitos has faced heavy favorites before.

“People had some doubts--classmates, players on the team--had doubts we were going to beat Marina because of all the hype about them,” Wilson said. “Maybe some of that talk got to us, but when we did beat them, it was like, ‘OK, now we can beat anybody.’ “I had my doubts, too. All year we had read and heard how good they were. (Marina outfielder) Robyn Yorke plays on the travel team with me; I wasn’t too confident to be playing against them.

“I feel pretty confident (against Simi Valley) even though they beat us last year. We’re an entirely different team. We didn’t have Carrie last year for that game. The team is pretty confident as well.”