East Sneaks Past West, 6-5, in Ventura County Softball

For five-plus innings, the East team looked anything but explosive in Friday night’s first Ventura County Coaches Assn. all-star softball game at Borchard Park in Newbury Park.

The East’s only hit to that point was Karen Zappia’s bunt single down the third base line that traveled all of 20 feet.

But the East scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to cap a 6-5 come-from-behind victory.

The East--which consisted of representatives from Newbury Park, Moorpark, Royal, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Westlake and Oak Park highs--finished with five hits, all singles, but it parlayed two hits, two errors and some hard-hitting baserunning into three ninth-inning runs to make a loser of relief pitcher Kristi Greyson of Buena.

Newbury Park’s Heather Jones opened the ninth with an infield hit and Shannon Swales of Newbury Park followed with a bunt single. Third baseman Johnna Mike bobbled the bunt, allowing the runners to move up.

Natalie Gutierrez grounded to shortstop Michele Ringor of Rio Mesa, whose throw pulled first baseman Rebecca Jimenez off the bag, as Jones scored to pull the East to within 5-4.

Jennifer Edwards of Westlake grounded to Ringor, who threw to catcher Tina Eckberg to get Swales even though she bowled over Eckberg.

After Edwards stole second, Nicole Ochoa grounded to Ringor, who threw home again but Gutierrez kicked the ball out of Eckberg’s glove and scored the tying run. As the ball rolled to the backstop, Edwards ran home with the winning run.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t even know what the score was,” Edwards said. “I saw the ball loose and I just charged home. It was a major rush. I couldn’t see the plate; it was full of dust. So I went back and stepped on it just to be sure.”

The West--which consisted of players from Channel Islands, Camarillo, Fillmore, Rio Mesa, Santa Paula and Ventura--couldn’t hold a 5-0 lead built against starter Swales after two innings.