SCC Softball Builds on Last Year’s Effort

The Southern California College softball team, which won its first Golden State Athletic Conference title last season, is showing signs that its success won’t be fleeting.

Led by two strong pitchers, senior Beth Howard and junior Shannon Saylor, the Vanguards are 15-4 and 4-1 in conference. They will play Cal Baptist (20-1-1, 4-0) for first place Monday in Riverside.

Co-Coach Terry Zeigler believes the Vanguards have an advantage over most of their competition in the conference and NAIA District 3 because most teams don’t have two outstanding pitchers.

Howard, in her second season since transferring from Oregon State, is 8-1 with an 0.71 earned-run average. Saylor is 7-3 with a 1.15 ERA.

Tuesday, Azusa Pacific became the first team to score on Howard in seven games, ending a 42-inning scoreless streak in the first inning. Howard recovered to hold Azusa without a run until the international tiebreaker in the extra innings. The game ended in a 3-3 tie after nine innings because of darkness. It will be completed April 16 before a regularly scheduled double-header at SCC.

Howard, who walked only one batter every 11 innings during the regular season last year, has one walk in 69 innings this season.

“If our offense can just keep up we should do well,” Zeigler said. “I think we have the best pitching in the conference.”

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The Vanguards have weathered the loss of Renee Hernandez, a catcher who was the District 3 player of the year. Hernandez dropped out of school in the fall because of personal problems and transferred to Chapman, where she is now the starting catcher.

Amy Lewis, a transfer from Rancho Santiago, has taken over at catcher and was batting .358 at the beginning of the week. Leadoff batter Shannon O’Rourke, also from Rancho Santiago, is playing shortstop.

Tracy Scofield, a senior from Costa Mesa High, was leading the team with a .434 average.

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Borders watching: The media parade continues to stop for SCC baseball pitcher Ila Borders. Monday, it was the CBS’ morning news show interviewing Borders Monday morning, live at 5:38 a.m.

Pat Guillen, SCC sports information director, said Athletic Director Ron Prettyman arrived at 3 a.m. to help the CBS crew set up; Borders showed up in uniform at about 4:30.

“It was funny,” Guillen said. “If you look at the interview, she’s just standing there in the complete dark.”

Today, Borders is scheduled to be interviewed by Joe Garagiola for NBC’s “Today” morning news show. Garagiola, a former major league catcher, is expected to play catch with her.

Next up for Borders, a real game. Friday, she is scheduled to start at home against Whitman (Wash.).

Notes

The Chapman women’s tennis team won its second match of the season last week, beating Caltech, 6-3. Sheryl Kalbach, Kristin Ross, Rebekah Anderson and Jolee Lautaret won in singles. Kalbach and Ross also won their doubles match. The Panthers (2-6) play at Cal Lutheran Saturday.