Bollinger Gets New Conquests

As she moves on to a softball career at Washington, Mater Dei pitcher Tia Bollinger will be remembered in Orange County for a number of things, but her mighty bat and prowess as a reliever probably won’t be among them.

The Monarch ace, who wasn’t allowed to touch a bat this year, gave the North all-stars something to remember with a run-scoring single and a save Tuesday, leading the South to a 2-0 victory in the Orange County North-South all-star game at Brea Olinda High.

Bollinger’s first-inning single scored Foothill’s Amber Dragomir to put the South ahead, 1-0. It was the only run the South team needed, as pitchers Steffany Stenglein (Marina) and Kari Singley (Irvine) helped Bollinger, who pitched the final three innings, combine for a three-hit shutout.

Bollinger struck out five and gave up a hit to Western’s Audra Ratajczak to earn most valuable player honors for the South.

“How about closing with that,” said Irvine’s Lisa Baker, the South head coach. “But we had some other good pitchers out there, too.”

The South got its leadoff hitter into scoring position with less than two outs without scoring twice Tuesday--something that could give a coach headaches during any normal game. However, Baker knew this was no normal game.

“I thought we could score a little more, but you still knew two runs would be enough to hold them when you close with Tia,” she said.

Rancho Alamitos’ Kristina Hyllested pitched scoreless sixth and seventh innings to earn MVP honors for the North.

She got out of a jam in the top of the seventh when the South put runners at first and second with one out. Amber Dragomir hit a line drive to La Habra’s Cassie Preece, who threw to second to double-up the runner.

Any momentum the play gave the North ended, though, as soon as Bollinger took to the circle in the bottom of the inning, when she struck out two and forced a ground ball to end the game.

“You have to go into every game the same way, but this was still a fun game,” said Bollinger, who was cut down at second base trying to stretch her first-inning single into a double. “I’m still not used to doing much on the base paths.”

Capistrano Valley’s Melissa Hara led off the fourth inning for the South with a double and scored two outs later when Laguna Hills’ Leslie Simien reached on an error. Simien advanced to third on the play but was stranded when Edwards struck out Bollinger.

The North committed three errors, which didn’t surprise Coach Sue Hall of Kennedy. Hall said she chose her players according to quality instead of position, which left her a little light at some positions.