El Dorado Continues Hot Streak With 12th Straight Win

The hottest softball team in Orange County isn’t top-ranked Mater Dei or second-ranked Foothill, but a team that isn’t even in the top 10.

El Dorado won its 12th consecutive game on Thursday, winning Canyon’s Michelle Carew Memorial Classic at Peralta Park with a 4-1 victory over Century.

El Dorado, which began the season with two losses, scored four runs in the third inning--three on a home run by winning pitcher Jill Jessen--to win its first Canyon tournament title.

Neither team was a likely candidate for the championship game, but Century (8-8) won four one-run games to reach the final. It defeated Ocean View in a semifinal, 1-0, using the international tiebreaker as Ana Villalovos’ single drove in the run in the eighth inning.

El Dorado (12-2) avenged one of its losses by defeating Diamond Bar (14-2) in the semifinals, 3-1, on run-scoring singles by winning pitcher Melissa Hobson and Keisha Knight. Diamond Bar, last year’s tournament champ, beat El Dorado in the 1998 semifinal.

It’s hard to say which game Thursday was more important to the Hawks, defeating a power like Diamond Bar or knocking off upstart Century for the title.

“This will help their confidence, they believe they can win,” said first-year Coach Jill Matyuch. “Part of winning is learning how to win.”

Singles by Sarah Yarbrough, Lauren Gallardo (bunt) and Kristi Durant, and a throwing error, allowed El Dorado to take a 1-0 lead against pitcher Erica Andrade (2-2). Then Jessen hit a drive between the right- and center fielder for her first home run.

Left-handed sophomore Crystal Soto replaced Andrade and retired 11 of 12 batters.

Jessen (7-1) allowed only three hits. Soto scored after her sixth-inning single only because a throwing error put her at third base.

“I don’t think anybody in this tournament thought we’d be where we are,” Century Coach Eddie Medina said of his team, which was 11-12-1 last season and 4-7 entering the tournament.

The performance wasn’t quite so shocking for El Dorado.

“I was told we were going to be good,” said Matyuch, who coached Charter Oak to a section title in 1993 and coached professional softball last summer. “But nobody told me we were going to win the Canyon tournament and be 12-2.

“We’re a good team. Are we among the elite? We haven’t proven that yet.”

In other tournament games:

Brea Olinda 4, Rosary 2--Brea posted four runs in the first and pitcher Tiffany Whitton tossed a one-hitter to lead Brea (8-6-1). Tiala Tagaloa and Michelle Greenwood each had two RBIs for Brea and Erin Hogan had Rosary’s only hit, a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth.

Orange Lutheran 2, Lake Elsinore 0--Jessica Edwards pitched a perfect game, striking out 16, for Orange Lutheran in the seventh-place game.

In an earlier 2-0 victory over Villa Park, Laura Miklos pitched a no-hitter for the Lancers, striking out eight and walking two. Jenny Miklos tripled and scored in Orange Lutheran’s two-run first.

Whittier Christian 8, Oxnard 3--Catcher Melissa Villa went four for four with three RBIs and one run scored, and pitcher Jennifer Benavidez struck out seven, earning her third victory for Whittier Christian (6-8).

In Empire League softball:

Loara 3, Cypress 0--Jessica Ruggiero drove in the first run with a double in the first and Mandy Sorvello added two more runs with a triple in the sixth for Loara (10-7, 1-0). Alicia Owen (4-4) pitched her third shutout of the season.