Woodbridge Wins Collision With Marina

If Woodbridge goes on to win its third Southern Section title in four consecutive trips to the finals, they are likely to point to Thursday’s victory over Marina as the most pivotal on its journey.

Woodbridge’s Lisa Watanabe scrambled to home plate after colliding with the catcher and scored the only run in the top-seeded Warriors’ 1-0 road victory over Marina in the Division II quarterfinals.

Woodbridge (28-5-1) plays Cerritos, a 1-0 winner over Kennedy, in Tuesday’s semifinal.

“We knew we’d have a tough time playing this team,” Woodbridge Coach Alan Dugard said. “They really wanted to win. That’s Marina.”

Marina (24-6) wasn’t intimidated. The Vikings outhit Woodbridge, 7-6, and had baserunners every inning but the second and sixth. They had six runners in scoring position, including the bases loaded in the fourth and fifth (with one out), but couldn’t get the critical hit, a season-long problem.

“I thought we outplayed them and played well enough to beat them,” Marina Coach Shelly Luth said. “But if you have the opportunity to score against a team like this, you have to do it. [Woodbridge] is too good.

“We choked.”

And Woodbridge didn’t.

The Warriors went down in order the first three innings against Heather Hagen (19-4), but consecutive singles, a double steal of second and third, and an intentional walk loaded the bases.

Marina third baseman Carrie Hagen grabbed Erica Greenberg’s chopper and forced Natasha Watley at home, but Brittany Ziegler fouled three 1-2 pitches before getting the game-winning RBI.

Ziegler’s sacrifice fly backed up center fielder Nikki Wilcox, whose throw home beat Watanabe for what would have been the third out. Watanabe collided with catcher Alicia Velazquez on a hook slide, but slid past--and missed--home plate. Watanabe scrambled to touch the plate with her hand.

“I didn’t know if I should tag her again,” Velazquez said. “It was a perfect throw. I got the ball. She hit my glove. I thought she was out. . . . There was no question of possession.”

Umpire Nick Ruzzi disagreed.

“[Velazquez] didn’t have control of the ball when [Watanabe] slid around her,” said Ruzzi, who consulted with two base umpires after the play. “She crawled back to the plate and tagged it. My partners saw the same thing.”

Christy Robitaille (20-3) struck out eight and walked three. Her defensive play, helped by her 5-foot-10 height, in the bottom of the fifth was critical. She grabbed Heather Hagen’s bases-loaded, full-count chopper up the middle.

“That was the play of the game,” Dugard said. “If she had been [5-foot-5] Heather Hagen, it would have gone over her head.”

In the seventh, Marina had runners at first and second, but Velazquez lined to right to end the game.

In another Division II game:

Cerritos 1, Kennedy 0--Nicole Crouse (13-4) pitched a one-hitter, but a fielder’s choice, two passed balls and a two-out error let third-seeded Cerritos (24-5) win. Four times Kennedy (20-7) had runners reach third with one out but didn’t score.