Barons Defeat El Toro for Title

Natalie King, who pitched Saturday’s championship game of the Fountain Valley softball tournament, said the host team’s incentive was pretty clear entering the final.

“Payback is what we were thinking in our minds,” said King, who pitched a one-hitter to beat El Toro, 5-1, and give Fountain Valley its first championship in the tournament’s five-year history.

A week earlier, King didn’t give up a hit for seven innings, only to give up two in the eighth and lose to El Toro, 1-0, in the Woodbridge tournament.

But the story of the day wasn’t that sixth-ranked Fountain Valley beat third-ranked El Toro (14-5), but that the Barons also beat No. 1 Mater Dei, 1-0, in the semifinals.

“After we beat Mater Dei, we were pretty confident,” said Colleen Burdick, who pitched a five-hitter against the Monarchs. “We knew we were going to win the championship.”

Fountain Valley (13-6) has won 11 of its last 12 games, including beating No. 10 Marina, a Sunset League rival, on Thursday.

It was a big week, for sure.

“Lately, it’s been all about rematches,” said King, who struck out 10, including nine of the last 11 she faced. “We lost to Mater Dei in the playoffs last year, and we lost to El Toro in the Woodbridge tournament.

“We wanted to play El Toro really bad, we wanted another chance at them.”

But it looked for awhile as if El Toro would spoil the Barons’ dreams of vengeance.

Jennifer Churchill (3-3) kept Fountain Valley off balance with a steady stream of slow pitches--in contrast to the fast pitches it saw in the semifinal against Mater Dei’s Marissa Young--and took a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning. But two errors and a single by freshman Christina Skaggs tied the score at 1-1.

Skaggs had swung at an apparent third strike, but base umpires ruled on appeal she had foul-tipped the ball. She hit the next pitch to right field, driving in Inez Vasquez.

“If we had gotten through the fourth inning, we would have brought in [left-handed ace Susan] Churchwell with a lead,” said El Toro Coach Jim Daugherty.

But Churchwell, who beat fifth-ranked Pacifica, 5-4, in the semifinal, never got that chance.

In the sixth, as Fountain Valley hitters got their third look at Churchill, the Barons scored four runs in a five-pitch span.

Burdick singled, Vasquez bunted safely, Tiffany Miller’s sacrifice was thrown away for an error allowing Burdick to score. Skaggs tripled to left-center field for two more runs, and Jennifer Mendoza singled home Skaggs for the 5-1 lead.

In other games:

No. 1 Mater Dei 2, No. 5 Pacifica 1--In the third-place game, Pacifica got three hits in the first inning, including an RBI single by Toria Auelua. But Tia Bollinger gave up only two more hits--both by Dara Webb (three hits)--and struck out 12, and Courtney Betley had two run-scoring singles for Mater Dei (13-2).

No. 3 El Toro 5, No. 5 Pacifica 4--Pacifica’s Nicole Pickett homered in the bottom of the sixth to tie the score, 4-4, but Sondra Milchiker’s sacrifice fly scored Laura Joiner with the winning run in the top of the seventh. Megan Smietana had a three-run homer for El Toro.

No. 2 Foothill 10, No. 10 Marina 1--Carrie Hagen opened the game with a home run, but it was all Foothill after that. Courtney Fossatti had a two-run double in Foothill’s four-run second inning, and freshman Jamie Dotson hit a three-run homer in the third for the Knights. Elizabeth Bendig (4-0) got the victory over Steffany Stenglein (5-2).