El Toro Shuts Out Millikan

After El Toro’s 6-0 victory over Long Beach Millikan in a Division I wild-card softball game Wednesday, Charger Coach Jim Daugherty said he would meet with his players before Friday’s first-round playoff game against top-seeded Mater Dei.

He will tell them about 1993, the year the Chargers upset top-seeded Kennedy in the first round of the Southern Section playoffs.

Charger pitcher Suzanne Guy will talk about her experiences with this year’s girls’ basketball team, which upset the top-seeded team in the playoffs.

“I don’t believe in No. 1 anymore,” Guy said Wednesday, after El Toro secured a first-round game against the Monarchs by beating Millikan.

Guy (10-4) pitched four innings, struck out seven and faced only 13 batters. Susan Churchwell, coming back from the flu, pitched three innings, struck out six, walked three and gave up one hit. The Chargers were, in a word, ready.

“If we had a week off, we probably wouldn’t be as sharp on Friday [against Mater Dei],” said second baseman Nikki Everett, who had two doubles, two runs batted in and scored once. “Playing this game keeps us focused on our next challenge.”

Millikan (9-22) didn’t provide much of a challenge. The Rams started four sophomores and three freshmen, and committed five errors. The Chargers had nine hits and, like Everett, Brittany Lindheim had two.

Losing pitcher Kathleen Gianesse (1-1), who gave up four unearned runs, had just been called up from the junior varsity.

Even when the Chargers appeared to err--a pickoff attempt at first base went off Everett’s glove--they looked good. Right fielder Sondra Milchiker backed up the play and threw the runner out at second.

The next challenge for El Toro (19-10) is Mater Dei (25-3), which can’t be happy about facing the third-place team from perhaps the section’s strongest league, the Sea View. El Toro was among the 26 wild-card teams that played Wednesday although it has beaten two teams in the regional bracket that were awarded first-round games, Lakewood and Los Alamitos.

Mater Dei will be playing the day after prom night.

“They may be tired,” Guy said, “and a week of practice tends to drag on. We’re better for playing this game.”

That was the common spin from El Toro players and coaches.

“This team could be dangerous to Mater Dei because of their pitching and defense,” Millikan Coach John Buksa said. “I think it will be pitcher’s duel and the game will be decided by a mistake.”

Daugherty thinks it’s better for his team to face Mater Dei in the first round under these circumstances. “I would rather play them now than in the quarterfinals,” Daugherty said. “But the bottom line is [Mater Dei] is going to be prepared. They know we’re not a bunch of donkeys.”