Extra, Extra: West All-Stars Go the Distance to Defeat East, 4-1

When the 10th San Fernando Valley all-star softball game went into extra, extra innings Wednesday, the West gained a definite advantage.

With six of 15 West players and a coach from the Marmonte League, the West settled into a role in which it was quite familiar--and comfortable. After all, Newbury Park and Camarillo each played 10 extra-inning games this season and Thousand Oaks was involved in seven.

“As soon as we went into extra innings I thought, ‘Geez, like I haven’t seen this before,’ ” said Thousand Oaks Coach Gary Walin, co-coach for the West.

The game was scoreless after regulation--nine innings instead the usual seven--when the international tiebreaker rule was installed. Both teams pushed across a run in the 10th.

But the West scored three runs in the top of the 12th and beat the East, 4-1, in front of about 300 at Cal State Northridge.

It was the first victory for the West since 1991 and only the third victory in 10 since the game’s inception in 1987.

Newbury Park pitcher Kristi Fox, who was involved in 46 extra innings this season, started for the West and pitched three hitless innings.

After relief appearances by three other pitchers, Fox returned to the pitcher’s circle with the score tied, 1-1, in the 11th. Fox pitched two perfect innings, striking out three. Fox, headed to Virginia on scholarship, had two of the West’s three hits.

The East’s five hits came off City Section pitchers Jessica Creith of Granada Hills and Rosie Yeatts of Reseda. Westlake’s Kelly DeArman, who has signed with Nevada Las Vegas, retired the six batters she faced in the fourth and fifth.

In the 12th, Tami Jones of El Camino Real scored the go-ahead run on a grounder by Tina Milburn of Moorpark. Milburn and DeArman scored with two out on an errant throw to first base by shortstop Deborah Abeles of Flintridge Prep.