SOUTHERN SECTION SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Tully Pushes Monarchs Toward Big Finish : Division I: With defense and hustle, junior third baseman has led surprising Mater Dei into title game against Marina.

Lisa Tully’s season hasn’t been perfect. If it had been, she never would have gotten off to that slow start.

And she wouldn’t have gone into a little slump during the Canyon tournament.

But her year still can have a storybook ending when the final chapter of Mater Dei’s season is written tonight.

The Monarchs are playing for the Southern Section Division I championship against Marina at Mayfair Park in Lakewood.

Marina is trying to win a record fifth major division championship. Mater Dei is playing in its first title game.

One of the main reasons is Tully, a scrappy third baseman whose defense and hustle epitomized the Monarchs’ play this year.

She is the quiet leader on a team that needs one. The Monarchs have eight freshmen and one senior. No one is looked up to more than Tully, a junior and the team captain.

Maybe her statistics aren’t as flashy as those of leadoff hitter Kelsey Kollen (.495, 29 runs, seven runs batted in), but they still boast plenty of kilowatts: Tully is batting .358 with 23 runs, 11 RBIs and 18 stolen bases in the No. 2 spot.

There’s no comparison between Kollen, a freshman second baseman, and Tully when it comes to the things that don’t show up in the scorebook.

“She adds more to the team in leadership,” Mater Dei Coach Doug Myers said. “She has played third base as well as anybody--she takes away so much. She’s done a remarkable job as far as all the intangibles she adds, and she’s come on for us in crucial games. She has done all the little things.

“As young as we are, you need to have a leader who has the work ethic that Lisa does.”

That leadership has transferred into victories, even when she struggled at the plate early in the season--though it wasn’t as bad as last year, when she got off to an zero-for-20 start.

Even though things weren’t going her way offensively, she didn’t let that affect her game in the field, where her role is crucial.

“I don’t think I’ve been around a player who has the work ethic that Lisa Tully has,” Myers said. “A ball doesn’t get by her without her being flat on the ground. She’s made so many key plays, like getting the lead out in the first game against San Clemente where, if we don’t get that, they score.”

Tully actually made three plays in that game that Myers figured prevented San Clemente from scoring; instead, the Monarchs won, 1-0.

She was voted the South Coast League’s most valuable player, helping Mater Dei to a 9-1 league record.

She did it playing with a right index finger--on her throwing hand--that many thought would prevent her from swinging a bat this season, much less hitting .358. She broke it last year, and Myers said she won’t have full range of motion for another two years, perhaps.

“I moved her from shortstop to third base because she’s a reactive-type player,” Myers said, “and she plays it like she invented the position.”

Tully takes great pride in her defense.

“It’s definitely been my strength this year,” she said. “I knew that I wasn’t doing it at the plate [early in the season]. I thought to myself, ‘I’m not doing it here, so I better do it out on the field.’ ”

The Monarchs’ pitching and experience were question marks three months ago; in the Times Orange County’s preseason Top 10 rankings, Mater Dei was ninth in the county. Today, Mater Dei (26-4) is ranked fourth in the state, three spots behind Marina (23-5).

“In order to gain respect, you have to earn it, and I think we came out this season ready to prove we belong, that we were ready to be with those top teams,” Tully said. “You earn respect--it doesn’t come free.”

That might be the reason Mater Dei’s 3-0 victory over Los Alamitos in the semifinal was the most emotional game of the season for Tully.

“Last year was such a huge disappointment when we lost in the first round [to Garden Grove, 5-4], when we expected to do better, and that’s been in the back of our minds,” she said. “Every returning starter, and especially Doug and [assistant coach] Jim Dolan--no one forgot about last year’s first-round game.

“If you had asked me at the beginning of the season if we would have been in the finals, I might have said ‘Maybe,’ but I would have been thinking, ‘No, maybe next year.’ It feels so great right now. No one expected much out of our team, yet here we are.”

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County softball champions

When Marina and Mater Dei meet tonight for the Southern Section Division I softball championship, it won’t be a unique pairing; county teams have faced each other nine other times in championship games since the section began sponsoring championships in 1974.

Year Div. Champion Runner-up Score 1977 4-A Marina El Segundo 7-2 3-A El Dorado Lompoc Cabrillo 3-2 1978 3-A La Quinta Los Amigos 3-0 1979 4-A Marina Torrance North Torrance 5-1 1981 3-A La Habra Lakewood St. Joseph 3-1 1983 4-A Cypress Santa Maria Righetti 5-2 1984 4-A Kennedy Marina 1-0 3-A Fullerton Long Beach Millikan 2-1 1-A Rosary San Marino 3-2 1985 4-A Ocean View Westminster 2-0 3-A Garden Grove Sonora 1-0 1987 4-A Cypress Thousand Oaks 5-0 3-A Sunny Hills Diamond Bar 4-0 2-A Laguna Hills* 0-0 2-A Woodbridge* 1988 3-A Kennedy La Mirada 1-0 2-A Woodbridge Laguna Hills 7-0 1990 5-A Marina Newbury Park 1-0 3-A El Toro Chino Don Lugo 1-0 1991 4-A Irvine Foothill 1-0 1992 5-A Cypress Simi Valley 1-0 4-A Foothill Newhall Hart 5-2 3-A Woodbridge Saugus 2-1 1993 III Laguna Hills Irvine 5-4 1994 I Marina Foothill 2-0 II Fullerton La Puente Bishop Amat 4-1 1995 II Woodbridge Lakewood 4-3

* Laguna Hills and Woodbridge were declared co-champions after playing to a 14-inning 0-0 tie.