Cornerstone Falls Again to Linfield in Playoffs

Third time’s a charm?

Hardly. The Cornerstone Christian softball team has seen just about enough of Linfield in the last three years.

For the third consecutive season, the Eagles fell to the Lions in the playoffs, this time by a 3-2 margin in a Southern Section Division VI semifinal game Tuesday at Mission Oaks Park.

“We fell apart,” said Cornerstone Christian shortstop Julia Tamai. “It seems like we get crushed by Linfield every year.”

The latest defeat, after a 9-0 loss to Linfield in last year’s title game and an 18-1 rout in the 1994 semifinals, was not nearly as one-sided. But Cornerstone again was plagued by costly errors.

Linfield’s Jenny Pahl scored the winning run when she reached base on a fielder’s choice, went to second on a wild pitch and came home when shortstop Tamai couldn’t hold a soft line drive hit by pitcher Janelle Gonzales (16-4).

“I missed it,” said Tamai, a sophomore who was one of seven players on Cornerstone Christian’s basketball team that reached the section final.

“I was going to charge it and then I decided not to. I didn’t know how to get to it.”

The ball glanced off the tip of Tamai’s glove and fell just behind her in shallow left-center field.

Tamai drove in Karri Becker with a double to left and then scored on a double by Jen Fiestel to give Cornerstone Christian (19-3) a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning.

Linfield (24-5) tied the score, 2-2, in the sixth on a hit, a botched fielder’s choice, a run-scoring grounder and a throwing error.