Double Duty Works for SCC

That the Southern California Christian baseball team advanced to the semifinals in Division VI playoffs seems even more remarkable because every member of the Flames competed on the school track team concurrently this spring.

“It was something I had never dealt with before,” said first-year SCC baseball Coach Darin Owens.

Owens was also the track coach at the school, which has 200 students.

“We would get the kids in here for a day or two, teach them some things and then they would go to track practice [for a couple of days],” Owens said. “You can get away with that at a small school most of the time, but at a large school you just can’t do that at all. But we had a lot of fun with it.”

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The winning discus throw of 203 feet, 4 inches by Huntington Beach’s Scott Moser Saturday at the state track and field championships in Sacramento would also have won at the NCAA Championships in Bloomington, Ind., where Jason Tunks of Southern Methodist University finished first at 195-11.

Tustin’s Dominique DeGrammont’s winning time in the 110 high hurdles (13.48 seconds) Saturday would have been good enough for third place at the NCAAs.

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Ashley Boone, who suffered a second-degree sprained ankle in Woodbridge’s first softball playoff game, took her final high school at-bat in the Warriors’ 2-0 victory over Santa Maria Righetti.

Boone, a two-time Times All-County player, entered as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Christy Robitaille with one out in the sixth inning in Friday’s Division II final. Boone laced a one-strike line drive into the right center field gap off Righetti pitcher Jocelyn Forest (33-3). Boone reached first base in a jog, got an ovation, and was replaced by Robitaille.

“I was going to try to find the right opportunity,” Coach Alan Dugard said. “It probably wasn’t the best situation, but it was time for her to say goodbye.”

Had she been able to run on the ankle, Boone said she would have turned the hit into a double.

“That was one of the best moments I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Boone, who will play next year at Florida. “Considering it was my [left] pivot foot when I bat, not practicing for two weeks, and getting a hit like that--it just goes to show that if you’re determined enough, you can do anything.”

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Foothill softball Coach Joe Gonzalez involved his players in team-building exercises throughout this season to create the kind of chemistry the Knights had when they last won a Southern Section softball title in 1992.

His attempt didn’t go unrewarded. The Knights reached the finals again and seemed to have a lot of fun doing it.

“The last couple of years, we were unbeatable in March, but we weren’t playing as well in May,” Gonzalez said before Saturday’s championship game against Upland. “This year, we’re playing a lot better. We’re playing our best ball right now.”

Foothill was unbeatable in May, too. But the three errors in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Upland came in June.

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Pacifica won its first softball title on Saturday, winning the Division II title, 3-0. But it wasn’t the first section title for Coach Rob Weil. He was goalkeeper for Pacifica’s 1980 boys’ soccer champion.

He said the softball title was better than the soccer championship.

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Melissa Herlihy, who coached Mission Hills Alemany’s girls’ basketball team to some epic confrontations with Orange County powers such as Brea Olinda and Mater Dei, has been fired. Her contract, which ends June 30, will not be renewed.

Herlihy, lost her job after the father of a sophomore she dropped from the team appealed to Los Angeles Archdiocese officials, according to published reports.

Herlihy was 269-69 during 12 seasons and won 10 league titles.

Times staff writer Martin Henderson contributed to this report.