Petersen Hits It the Right Way, Aliso Niguel Wins Title

Aliso Niguel hitters flirted all day Wednesday with the left-field line, hitting a half-dozen line drives barely foul.

It took Kalena Petersen to discover they were hitting in the wrong direction.

Petersen sliced an opposite-field line drive just inside the right-field line, driving home two runs with a triple in the bottom of the seventh inning. When Petersen scored a few pitches later, Aliso Niguel had a 3-2 victory over Woodbridge and the Sea View League championship.

The loss ended Woodbridge’s string of consecutive league titles at 16. The Warriors (18-11, 4-3) could have tied Aliso Niguel (19-7-1, 6-1) for first place with a victory. Now, to guarantee an automatic playoff berth, Woodbridge must beat Irvine Friday.

The victory gave Aliso Niguel its second consecutive league title, but its first in the Sea View League, after being realigned there from the Pacific Coast League.

“We stole that game,” said winning pitcher Amanda Samonte (12-4), a freshman who surrendered only two hits but appeared headed for defeat going into her team’s final at-bat. “We came through with the big plays. The infield and outfield was just tremendous--I didn’t have any strikeouts. But we had nothing to show for it.”

Not until the end, anyway.

After getting only two hits through six innings against Woodbridge freshman Brittany Crouch, Aliso Niguel’s Jessica Vernaglia and Chezare Sievers lined singles to left field to open the seventh. Lindsay Schafer lined out to third base, but Petersen tied the score with her triple.

“I thought it was going to go foul,” Petersen said. “It was pretty close.”

Shannon Anderson then hit a bouncer to the pitcher. Crouch failed to look Petersen back to third base and threw directly to first base for the second out, but Petersen slid home ahead of Breanne Cooley’s throw to catcher Maritza Padilla for the game-winning run.

“We played a great game, Crouch pitched a great game, but that’s the nature of the game,” said Cooley, whose two-run single in the fourth had given Woodbridge its 2-0 lead. “We definitely knew they were a comeback team.”