SOFTBALL / SUNSET LEAGUE : Marina Beats Los Alamitos

Lynette Velazquez now knows what it’s like to walk angrily and carry a big stick.

Velazquez, after committing an error that put her team at a one-run disadvantage, tripled twice, drove in two runs, scored another and helped fourth-ranked Marina score a 3-1 Sunset League victory over fifth-ranked Los Alamitos on Thursday.

Marina (15-5, 5-1 in league) remained tied for first place with Fountain Valley and dropped Los Alamitos (15-4, 3-2) a game back.

Although the teams had played 22 and 14 innings in their previous two meetings, this game lasted only 1 hour 13 minutes.

Velazquez, a senior first baseman who said she hasn’t hit nearly as well as expected--she’s hovering at .333 after batting .452 last year--found herself in the middle of most of the scoring.

Brooke Donberg’s two-out grounder rolled up Velazquez’s glove arm in the third inning and enabled Megan Barnes to score from third. Barnes had singled and reached third on two sacrifice bunts.

Still fuming over her misplay, Velazquez stepped to the plate in the bottom of the inning with two outs and Becky Thompson on first base. After fouling the ball down the left-field line, the left-handed-hitting Velazquez ripped a one-ball, two-strike pitch from Cathy Sponheim to deep right field. Thompson scored easily as Velazquez pulled into the third.

“I hit it out of anger at myself,” Velazquez said. “I was mad I made the error that made the run score that put them ahead.”

Velazquez batted with two outs and Marcy Crouch on second base in the fifth inning and pulled Sponheim’s first pitch to right center. Another triple, another RBI, and a 2-1 lead. After an intentional walk to Heather Williams--she was also walked after Velzaquez’s first triple--Faith Fuata hit a bad-hop double off the face of second baseman Donberg to make it 3-1.

That was all the support Crouch (13-4) needed. She didn’t give up a hit after the third inning, finished with a four-hitter, and lowered her county-best earned-run average to 0.16. She struck out two.

Marina got seven hits and didn’t strike out against Sponheim (4-1), a freshman who started because Los Alamitos’ other pitchers are battling bronchitis and the flu.

In other Sunset League games:

Esperanza 12, Edison 2 (5, mercy)--Nicole Brunk, Aprille Brown and Kari De Soto hit first-inning home runs, capping a 10-run outburst for Esperanza (9-10, 3-2). De Soto’s home run, a grand slam, followed Brunk’s bases-empty home run and Brown’s two-run homer.

Fountain Valley 2, Huntington Beach 0--Alicia Burdick had an RBI single in the second inning and Keary Camunas scattered seven hits over seven innings with five strikeouts to lead Fountain Valley (14-10, 5-1). Huntington Beach is 9-13, 1-4.