Marina’s Crouch Has Taste for Winning

Marcy Crouch took a slice of Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza, grabbed the cheese by the edge and pulled it off--all in one perfect piece.

“I’m on a roll,” she said to herself.

Crouch likes her pizza stripped bare, but the message she delivered to her Marina teammates amid the postgame celebration provided plenty to chew on.

She told them what it is like to be a champion. Crouch has won two Southern Section titles for the Vikings--in soccer-- and she imparted that feeling to the gang after their 10-inning, 1-0 semifinal victory over Pacifica on Tuesday.

“After my soccer game, I was on the biggest high of my life,” she said. “I had never been that happy before. I was in the absolute best mood. I told them, ‘It is the best feeling to win.’ I loved it. And I want it again.”

Crouch will be in the middle of Marina’s championship hopes tonight when she takes the mound at 7:30 against Foothill (25-6). The Vikings (25-2) are the top-seeded team in Division I and have won 15 in a row. Crouch, the leadoff batter and a pitcher with a 21-2 record, is the only starter on the team who knows what it’s like to win it all.

As a sweeper on the two-time defending champion soccer team (ranked No. 1 in the state), she was the Southern Section’s Division I defensive player of the year. On the softball diamond, she is recognized as one of the county’s best clutch performers.

Marina’s only two losses this year occurred in back-to-back games. The Vikings lost to Fresno Bullard, 2-1, in the championship game of the Santa Maria Righetti Tournament, and then lost the next day to Fountain Valley, 7-1.

It was in that game that Crouch allowed four of the five earned runs she surrendered all year, but consider the circumstances: She pitched 12 innings the day before, and she pitched seven innings the day before that. And she had only recently finished an extended soccer season. She doesn’t throw in the winter, so she had not yet worked herself into softball shape.

The next time Marina played Fountain Valley--rested, not worn out--Crouch pitched a two-hitter.

Take away the first Fountain Valley game and her earned-run average is 0.05 instead of its current 0.26. Crouch is also averaging more than a strikeout per inning (146 in 136 innings) and has walked only five batters.

And she relishes a softball title more than her soccer championship “because I didn’t expect to get here.”

“We are not dominating like my soccer team,” Crouch said. “Every game, we have to go out there and work to win. In soccer, we were expected to win.

“I think when we beat Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley and won (the Sunset) League, we said, ‘If we play like this, we are a good team. If we can beat them, we can beat anybody.’ ”

Sage analysis from someone who knows the feeling.

FOOTHILL VS. MARINA

Division I Softball

When: 7:30 tonight

Where: Mayfair Park, Lakewood

Records: Foothill (25-6); No. 1-seeded Marina (25-2)

Starting pitchers: Marie Gieron, 12-4, 0.50 ERA; Marcy Crouch, 21-2, 0.26

Noteworthy: Marina should get some good swings against Gieron. Foothill’s quickness puts pressure on the Viking defense to play error-free. Both teams should have scoring opportunities. Foothill has three players--Dawn Davidson, Michelle Churnock and Carley Rutledge--who played on its 1992 championship team.