Rosary’s Surge Continues With Victory Over Westminster

After a season of disappointment, there was something that felt right to Rosary’s players after their 1-0 softball victory over Westminster Wednesday.

Rosary was ranked as high as fifth in some preseason polls, but a myriad of injuries prevented the Royals from developing the way most, including Coach Tom Tice, expected.

But by defeating Westminster, the Royals beat the current fifth-ranked team in Orange County and took a one-game lead in the Golden West League.

Rosary is 20-8, 8-1 in league with one game to play. Westminster is 19-5, 7-1 with two to play.

“We’ve split [games] with [10th-ranked] El Toro and El Dorado, and we know we’re as good as Westminster,” Tice said. “We feel we’re a top-10 team whether the paper says it or not.”

Rosary won for the 11th time in 12 games, its only loss coming against Westminster when Tice chose not play six players who had missed a practice the day before. Among them was pitcher Julie Luna, who has shut out Westminster three times dating to last year.

Westminster had won eight straight and could have positioned itself to win its first league title outright since 1983. The Lions wasted seven runners in scoring position, five who reached third base.

Two others were thrown out at second--one caught stealing, the other trying to advance on a throwing error.

All those wasted chances were in contrast to Rosary, which exploited one of its two opportunities. Westminster pitcher Brenda Quinn retired the first 13 batters before allowing two infield singles and a walk in the fifth inning, but got out of the jam with a ground ball to shortstop.

Quinn was replaced by freshman Ashley Maranto (7-3) in the sixth inning. Seven pitches later, Rosary scored. Laura Fulton singled and was bunted to second. Lesley Fulton singled too sharply to right field to score her sister, but Laura Fulton scored on Luna’s soft line drive to right.

Luna labored in the circle, walking two, surrendering four hits and surviving threat after threat. Despite allowing a runner in every inning but the third, she improved to 17-6, matching Lori Schoeman’s 1984 school record for victories in a season; the Royals won the Division 1-A title that year.

“Today our team didn’t care about rankings,” Luna said. “We were just concentrating on winning league.”

In the Academy League:

St. Margaret’s 1, Liberty Christian 0--Amber Arnold pitched a two-hit shutout as St. Margaret’s (13-4, 9-1) secured a tie for the league title with Liberty Christian.

Michelle Hulick pitched a two-hitter in a losing cause for the Minutemen (11-4, 9-1).

In Academy League baseball:

Liberty Christian 4, Capistrano Valley Christian 3--John Stephens hit a bases-loaded two-out infield single in the bottom of the seventh inning to score Brian Davis and win the game for Liberty Christian (12-6, 6-3). Davis had tripled home C.J. Leeman to tie the score for the Minutemen.

In the Empire League:

Loara 4, El Dorado 1--Aaron Koontz and Jim Kirkland combined for a two-hitter for Loara (15-9, 7-7). El Dorado falls to 15-10, 10-4 in the Empire League.

In the Orange League:

Brea Olinda 3, Valencia 2--Tom Prenovost hit a two-run double in the first inning to lead Brea Olinda (13-11, 9-5). The Wildcats remain in second place, one game ahead of Western.

Valencia is 8-15, 5-9.

Western 11, Savanna 4--Russell Garza, Nick Swanson and Frank Quintana each hit home runs to lead Western (14-11, 8-6). With the victory, the Pioneers clinch a playoff spot. Savanna is 4-15, 3-11.

In the Sunset League:

Esperanza 6, Edison 1--Ricky Leach and Tommy Nicholsen each had two hits and an RBI and Brandon Pack threw six shutout innings for Esperanza (13-10, 9-5), which clinched second place.