No Overlooking Diener This Time, 5-0

Kim Diener has been in Alemany High’s softball lineup for four years, yet her coach still misspells her name.

After pitching her team to a Mission League title as a sophomore, Diener lost out on the league’s pitcher and player of the year awards to pitchers from second- and third-place teams.

Diener may at times be overlooked, but she isn’t underappreciated.

“She makes me look like a great coach,” Alemany Coach Dudley Rooney said Friday after Diener allowed two hits in a 5-0 victory over Boron in the first round of the High Desert tournament at Lancaster City Park. The game was called after six innings because of a tournament time limit.

The Indians, seeking their third High Desert title in four years, will face Arcadia today at 5 p.m. in a second-round game.

On Friday, Diener again yielded the spotlight to another--but not for long.

Spectators at the tournament were abuzz about Boron’s Summer Richardson, a Cal State Northridge-bound right-hander who entered with 16 career no-hitters, including a 20-strikeout performance last week against Rosamond.

“It doesn’t bug me,” Diener, last season’s player of the year in the league, said of her limited fanfare. “I know what I can do.”

So does Boron (7-2).

Diener (8-3), who has committed to Long Beach State, struck out 11 and lowered her earned-run average to 0.16 by posting her fifth shutout. She allowed only two Bobcat runners as far as second base.

Richardson (6-2) was overpowering at times, but erratic throughout.

She struck out seven, but yielded four hits, uncorked five wild pitches and hit a batter.

Richardson was tagged for three hits and four runs (one earned) in the third. Boron made three of its five errors in the inning.

Annette Ramirez’s ground single under the glove of Boron second baseman Coty Tubb allowed Anna Allen and Reina Sarabia to score for a 2-0 Indian lead.

Debbie Borra and Ramirez later scored when a fly ball by Regina Yuhasz was dropped by center fielder Trisha Ballinger.

Ramirez was two for three.

With an enrollment of 220, Boron is the smallest school in the tournament’s 16-team upper division. Alemany has an enrollment of 1,420.

Tournament officials bumped Boron up a level, however, after the Bobcats won the 1997 lower division title and advanced to the Southern Section Division VI final.

“We should be able to play with anybody,” said Richardson, who made two of the Bobcats’ errors. “But we just can’t make errors like that.”