LeCocq’s 3-Hit Shutout Keeps Chaminade Perfect in Mission

A few days ago, Notre Dame High was cruising along at a pretty good clip, looking like a true contender in the Mission League.

But after losing for the second time in three days, Notre Dame isn’t talking about titles.

“It’s been a rough week,” said Cindy Kramer, the coach. Any other coach whose team had to face two of the league’s toughest pitchers in three days would probably say the same.

On Friday, it was Chaminade’s Maureen LeCocq handcuffing the Knights.

LeCocq scattered three hits for the Eagles, who stayed undefeated in league play with a 4-0 victory at Chaminade Middle School in Chatsworth.

Although the Eagles won decisively, Chaminade Coach Steve Harrington wasn’t quite satisfied.

“I don’t think we played very well,” said Harrington. “There are still some areas we need to improve on.”

Kramer, meanwhile, found a silver lining in the loss.

“Except for the first inning, it seems like we’re back on track,” said Kramer, whose Knights committed five errors in a 6-0 loss to Harvard-Westlake on Wednesday, when Elena Ferrero pitched a two-hitter.

“I feel better about our batting today. There weren’t a lot of strikeouts and we hit the ball hard at people.”

Chaminade (11-6-1, 5-0), ranked No. 3 by The Times in the region, did most of the damage against Notre Dame (14-6, 3-3) in the first, bunching four hits and taking advantage of two errors to score three runs.

With one out, the Eagles got consecutive hits from Lindsey Weinstein, Erin Taylor, Courtney Whale and Shannon Barceloux.

After Whale’s run-scoring single, a pickoff attempt by catcher Dana Finkelstein went off the glove of first baseman Karen Tobin and into dead territory for a two-base error. Taylor scored on the error and Whale scored four pitches later on Barceloux’s liner to center, the first of her two hits.

Notre Dame’s Amanda De La Cerda (12-6) settled down after the first inning, retiring eight in a row in one stretch.

Chaminade, which had seven hits off De La Cerda, scored again in the sixth when Lauren Rousselet’s single got by left fielder Kristie Barraza.

As per usual, LeCocq, one of the most dominating pitchers in the region, was quite stingy.

After allowing a single by Tobin in the first and another by Trish Wetzel in the third, LeCocq (10-2) retired 10 in a row and 14 of the last 15, finishing with four strikeouts. Tobin had two of Notre Dame’s three hits.