Verdugo Hills Back in Final for Third Consecutive Year

Wide open or close to the vest, the result is the same for the Verdugo Hills High softball team.

Against South Gate in a City Section Division 3-A semifinal at South Gate Park, the Dons eked out a 1-0 victory Tuesday after outscoring Los Angeles CES and Roosevelt, their two earlier playoff opponents, 38-2.

The Dons’ Melanie Wood (13-2) threw a one-hitter, striking out nine and walking one. Yvonne Arizaga (11-3) of South Gate (11-3) tossed a three-hitter and struck out seven, but gave up two hits and the lone run (unearned) in the top of the first inning.

Verdugo Hills (15-3), the 1993 3-A champion, will make its third consecutive appearance in the title game Tuesday against Garfield at UCLA’s Easton Stadium.

“I really didn’t expect a one-run game, but our defense held us,” said Verdugo Hills Coach Dan Balkey, whose team committed one error to South Gate’s four. “We found out we could battle, and Melanie pitched a great game.”

The Dons got off to a quick start in the first when leadoff hitter Jodi Kent walked and Charity Peterson followed with a bunt single. After Maryann May struck out, Kent advanced to third on an errant pick-off attempt by South Gate catcher Kissy Fernandez and scored on a single by Kelley Balkey.

“It took away my nervousness when we scored,” said Kent, who played catcher for the second consecutive game with a broken bone and torn ligament in her glove hand. “[South Gate] watched a lot of pitches go by. They only swung at the perfect ones and Melanie didn’t give them many of those.”

Wood, who has not allowed a run in 90 of the 101 innings she has pitched this season, was dominant from the start. The 5-foot-8 right-hander struck out the first five batters she faced. The lone batter to scratch a single off her was quickly erased on a double play in the third.

“It was a different feeling today, knowing that at any minute they could come back and score and we’d be tied,” Wood said. “Our bats weren’t going and they seemed to be set up in just the right places when we did hit it.”