Kollen Punctuates Monarch Win

Kelsey Kollen found herself at the bottom of the dog pile, but she was really on top of the world.

Kollen’s soft single with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Courtney Ryan with the winning run as top-seeded Mater Dei outlasted fourth-seeded Camarillo, 2-1, in a Southern Section Division I softball semifinal Tuesday in Santa Ana.

Kollen’s grounder up the middle was enough for Ryan to speed around third base and get the best of a collision with catcher Jennifer Byrne.

Priscilla Trejo’s perfect one-hop throw squirted out of Byrne’s glove when Ryan, who slid past home, made contact with the catcher. When Ryan finally tagged the plate, the Monarch seniors were in the section finals for the third time in four years.

Mater Dei (29-3) will play Friday or Saturday at Lakewood’s Mayfair Park against Chino Hills Ayala, a 2-1 winner over Irvine.

“It was a great throw,” said Byrne, a junior catching for only the fourth week. “I had it, but on the catch, it slipped out. I didn’t tag her with two hands.”

Byrne, a left fielder, was pressed into catching after starter Erika Francis was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. After losing three of four games, the Scorpions (21-6) came into the game with seven consecutive victories.

That Mater Dei was going to the finals again didn’t hit Kollen until “after we had the dog pile and I was at the bottom,” Kollen said. “It was awesome, but it kind of hurt.”

Mater Dei stranded seven runners through every inning but the fourth. Camarillo also had its chances, but stranded six runners over the first, second, third, sixth and seventh innings against Marissa Young (13-2), who pitched a five-hitter. In the early innings, Young struck out five of nine batters with runners on base, including cleanup batter Allie Taverner in the third.

Taverner’s out ended a threat in which Camarillo had two runners on with none out. Young induced two pop-ups before getting the sixth of her eight strikeouts.

That came on the heels of Mater Dei taking a 1-0 lead in the second on Jamie Bagnall’s two-out triple and an error on Ryan’s grounder.

Though Mater Dei gave up a run in the sixth on Shannon Zigner’s two-out blooper down the left-field line, Mater Dei was saved by shortstop Robin Walker’s hustle. With runners at first and second, the ball skipped past Courtney Betley, but Walker retrieved the ball and threw out Taverner, who was trying to go from first to third.

In the seventh, with a runner on second base, Young struck out Jessica Mendoza (.459), who had homered in a 5-1 loss to Mater Dei in April. That set up Mater Dei’s winning rally, which began with Ryan’s line drive to center field and a wild pitch that moved her to second base.

An out later, Kollen’s third single ended the game.

In another Division I game:

Chino Hills Ayala 2, Irvine 1--Merrideth Miles scored the decisive run in the fifth inning for Ayala (25-4). Third-seeded Irvine (24-5) scored in the first inning on Katy Morrison’s RBI double, but Ayala tied the score in the fourth when Megan McNuff, who stole third base, scored on a throwing error.