SOUTHERN SECTION CHAMPIONSHIPS : Marina Displays Its Championship Form : Division I softball: Marcy Crouch pitches one-hitter and Vikings beat Foothill, 2-0, for the title.

It was as much a contrast in journeys as it was a contrast in styles.

Marina, the top-seeded team in Division I, with the easiest path to Friday’s Southern Section championship game, played Foothill, a league champion given the worst draw of the tournament.

And when they met at Mayfair Park, 1 1/2 months after a scheduled doubleheader had been rained out, the favorite was left standing.

Marina, the good-hitting, good-pitching team with the suspect defense, was flawless, and Marcy Crouch pitched a one-hitter in a 2-0 victory. The Vikings finish 26-2.

Foothill (25-7), a team without seniors but loaded with speed and great defenders, committed one gaffe that led to the winning run, and managed only one legitimate baserunner.

The Knights’ only scoring threat came in the sixth inning. Lauren Bauer singled with two outs and stole second, but was nailed at third by catcher Heather Williams on ball four to Michelle Churnock, Foothill’s best hitter. Churnock didn’t even have time to get out of the batter’s box before the inning ended.

The game never developed as anticipated as Crouch and Marie Gieron squared off in a pitcher’s duel. Marina had the only hit through 4 1/2 innings but broke through in the bottom of the fifth.

Williams was safe when first baseman Robin Tessman dropped Churnock’s throw from shortstop. Pinch-runner Megan Orach took second on Faith Fuata’s sacrifice bunt, third on Staci Byers’ grounder to Tessman, and scored on Heather Hibben’s line single to left field.

It was Hibben’s second consecutive game-winning hit; she drove in Angela Alvarez with the only run in the 10th inning of a semifinal victory over Pacifica.

“It was a fastball, inside,” Hibben said. “I think.”

Was it meat?

“Basically.”

Kelly Flowers followed with a single before Gieron (12-5) ended the inning with her only strikeout of the night, but Marina had clearly solved the pitcher.

Crouch led off the sixth inning with a ground-rule double, and after Becky Thompson’s sacrifice, Lynette Velazquez doubled. The Vikings finished with six hits--five in the last two innings.

Crouch (22-2) struck out 10 and walked one.

“That’s the best I’ve seen her throw,” Marina Coach Shelly Luth said. “She had absolute control.”

And she was in absolute control, especially with the play of her defense. It set the tone from the beginning, when shortstop Rainey Keiter--one of only two Marina seniors--threw out Churnock on a bunt that opened the game. The play was close, but Marina had delivered its message.

“I was scared (about the matchup),” Luth said. “I knew we had made mistakes and everyone bagged on our defense, but we don’t panic when we make mistakes.

“As teams got better in the playoffs and our defense became an issue, they focused more.”

Crouch ended Foothill’s winning streak at 12 and extended Marina’s to 16. The Knights had beaten pitchers with a combined record of 58-7 in their four playoff victories. But Crouch was too much. And so was the defense.