Westlake Not Sour About Loss to Marina : Softball: Warriors end great playoff run by falling 3-0 to Vikings.

No sour grapes here.

After the Westlake High softball team lost, 3-0, to Marina in the Southern Section Division I semifinals on Tuesday at Golden West College, the Warriors had only good things to say about the Vikings.

“I don’t mind losing to a team like that because they are very good,” Westlake pitcher Kelly DeArman said. “It wasn’t like we lost to a bunch of slouches.”

Marina (23-5) earned a trip to the championship game Saturday, when the Vikings will try to defend their Division I title.

Westlake (24-7) earned a trip home, but not until making an impressive statement in its first playoff appearance. The Warriors beat top-seeded Foothill last week in the quarterfinals, sending a messge to fourth-seeded Marina.

“I knew they were going to be good,” Marina Coach Shelly Luth said.

But Luth also knew she could count on her starting pitcher, Stanford-bound Marcy Crouch.

Crouch (21-4) pitched a one-hitter, allowing only Arin Carlson’s infield single in the seventh. She struck out six, including the first five hitters of the game, and did not walk a batter.

“She was very good,” said Westlake center fielder Cathy Davie, who has signed to play at Michigan. “She moved the ball around well.”

Until the seventh, Crouch was on her way to her sixth no-hitter of the year and third of the playoffs. She no-hit Newbury Park in the second round.

“She really kept us off-balance,” Westlake assistant Gary McGinnis said. “She definitely earned her scholarship.”

Marina catcher Heather Williams (Michigan State) and center fielder Faith Fuata (Ball State) have also accepted Division I scholarships, but it was Fuata who did most of the damage to Westlake.

She tripled leading off the fourth and subsequently scored the game’s first run on a ground ball. She then drove in Becky Thompson with a two-out single in the fifth, her third hit of the game.

“I told Kelly to pitch around her,” McGinnis said, “but she didn’t pitch around her enough.”

DeArman (23-6), a junior left-hander, was tagged for nine hits. She said she had been bothered by flu since Sunday and it affected her performance.

“I couldn’t come out and pitch my hardest,” she said. “I just didn’t have enough energy. ... I was really dizzy. I looked at the [catcher’s] glove and it looked like it was moving.”

DeArman still managed to shut down Marina through three innings--with Davie’s help.

With two out and runners at second and third in the third, Williams, the cleanup hitter, drove a DeArman pitch to deep right-center field. Davie sprinted back and stretched out to make a spectacular catch.

“She’s probably the only one who could have made that catch,” McGinnis said. “She has great speed.”

Marina had seven hits over the next three innings, while the Warriors never even had two baserunners at once.

“We played good, but it just wasn’t our day,” DeArman said. “We played good and they played better.”