SCC Ousted After Giving Up Too Many Early-Inning Runs

The luck finally ran out Thursday for Southern California College at the NAIA National Softball Championship.

SCC (48-13) fell behind Spring Hill (Ala.) by four runs after three innings and lost, 4-1, Thursday in an elimination game. The Vanguards lost to Oklahoma City, 5-4, earlier in the day after giving up four runs in the first.

“We got ourselves in a hole,” SCC Coach Beth Renkoski said. “I think the girls hung in there with all they had, but I think the Oklahoma [City] game took a lot out of us. It’s a disappointing result. We set our goals higher.”

Spring Hill managed only one run in the first inning after loading the bases. SCC senior pitcher Gretchen Brandt ran into more trouble in the third inning.Two singles and a hit batter loaded the bases again. Frieda Flowers’ sacrifice fly and a two-run double by Kristin Kuhnkey put SCC in a four-run hole.

The Vanguards’ best chance at getting to Spring Hill starter Jennifer Cunningham came in the fifth inning when they loaded the bases with one out. But Cunningham struck out senior Alicia Groshon and got Noelle Sturgill to pop out to shortstop. A final-inning rally fell short when Val Vanaken popped to second, following Sturgill’s RBI single. Sturgill drove in six of the team’s 13 runs and batted .455 during the tournament.

“Noelle has been an outstanding leader for us all year long,” Renkoski said. “I was really happy she was able to come through in clutch situations because it’s going to be something she can look back on and be proud of.”

Another person who stood out during SCC’s run was freshman Gina Liebengood. She went 1-0 with one save and a 0.64 ERA. She was outstanding Thursday, giving up one earned run in 10 innings and giving her team a chance to come back and win both games.

They almost did it in the first game. The Vanguards overcame a 4-0 first-inning deficit against Oklahoma City with two runs in the second and two more in the fifth. But OCU (68-10), which won consecutive national titles from 1994 to 1997, scored the eventual winning run in the top of the seventh.

Shortstop Christie Liu Xuqing, a two-time All-American and Chinese national team member, tripled deep to right off Liebengood to lead off. She scored on Jamie Whiteman’s sacrifice fly.

In the first inning, SCC sophomore Alysia Atchely walked consecutive batters to load the bases with one out. She then gave up an RBI single, hit a batter and walked two more to allow four runs before Liebengood replaced her.