Fox Provides Answers for Newbury Park, 2-0

With the way Kristi Fox was pitching, you just knew that Newbury Park would win its first-round game in the Southern Section Division I softball playoffs.

The only question among the nearly 200 Newbury Park fans at Borchard Park on Friday was when the offense would give Fox some support.

The answer came in the fifth inning, when the Panthers scored twice to gain a 2-0 victory over Dos Pueblos that advanced them to Tuesday’s second round against Walnut.

Fox (16-3) pitched a three-hitter and struck out 10. She did not allow a baserunner until she walked Charger pitcher Marie Gensler to lead off the fifth.

But the Panther offense, despite seven hits through the first four innings, couldn’t get on the scoreboard.

The Panthers (22-5-1), the Marmonte League champions, stranded six runners in the first four innings, had another thrown out between third and home on a baserunning blunder and twice had batters called out for stepping out of the batter’s box while attempting a slap bunt.

“By the time we got to the fourth I was thinking, ‘Gee, the more we get into this without putting them away, the more they’re thinking they can pull it out,”’ Panther Coach Mike Morgan said.

No such luck for the Chargers (14-12), an at-large team from the Channel League, as Newbury Park took advantage of two Dos Pueblos errors in the fifth.

Fox led off the inning with a bunt single, advanced to second on Amy Berman’s sacrifice bunt, and scored when Charger third baseman Jessica Thompson threw away Tina Roscoe’s bunt.

On the next pitch, Morgan called a bunt-and-run with Emily Webster at the plate and Roscoe on second after the error. Webster whiffed on the bunt attempt but Roscoe scored when Charger catcher Amber Price threw over third base.

“I’m really confident in this team’s offense,” Fox said. “I wasn’t ever really worried because it always comes through.”

Fox took care of the rest, but not without a late scare.

The Chargers got consecutive singles to start the seventh before Fox induced a fielder’s choice sandwiched between strikeouts to end the game.