Nevard, Camarillo Low-Ball Highland

Kathryn the Great? Perhaps. Kathryn the Unhittable? For sure.

For the second consecutive playoff game, Kathryn Nevard of Camarillo High looked like Cy Young and Lisa Fernandez rolled into one.

Nevard came within one strike of recording her second no-hitter in a row, settling for a one-hitter and a 1-0 victory over Golden League champion Highland on Tuesday in the second round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs at Camarillo.

“She has the ability to take them all the way,” Coach Glenda Potts of Highland said of Nevard (16-6), who faces fourth-seeded Los Alamitos on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

In the first round, the Illinois-bound right-hander struck out 18 and pitched a perfect game for Camarillo (22-8) in a 6-0 victory over Alhambra.

Against Highland, which had a .306 batting average, she struck out 13 and allowed only two baserunners.

“We hadn’t seen that kind of pitcher all year long,” said first baseman Keri Pulcifer, the only Bulldog to reach base.

Pulcifer tripled with two out and two strikes in the seventh, the only time Highland (19-8) hit the ball out of the infield.

With the tying run 60 feet away, Nevard didn’t waver.

“I knew I’d get the next girl,” said Nevard, who fanned Robyn Hauptman on four pitches. “You try to think positive in those situations.”

Nevard, who had 13 strikeouts, ran her streak of perfection to 11 innings and 33 batters before Pulcifer reached base on an error to lead off the fifth.

Nevard struck out the next three batters on riseballs to end the threat, one of three times she fanned the side.

“They were really swinging at the riseball,” said Nevard, The Times’ 1999 Ventura County pitcher of the year, who has 299 strikeouts in 167 innings.

It was a familiar postseason script for Highland, which fell in the 1998 section quarterfinals when Cindy Ball of Camarillo fired a no-hitter in a 4-0 victory.

This time, junior right-hander Nichole Rawson (17-7) of Highland pitched well enough to win but was undermined by an unearned run in the second inning.

Rawson, who struck out five in a four-hitter, allowed Grace Morris an infield hit to lead off.

Morris advanced to third on sacrifice bunts by Rheann Fortney and Lindsey Calderon, and scored when Jaclyn Victoria grounded to third base and Angie D’Errico overthrew Pulcifer at first.

“They always like to make things interesting,” said Coach Miki Mangan of Camarillo, who is expecting a baby in August. “They want me to give birth early, I think.”

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SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS

City Invitational Final

Monroe 5, Washington 0

Southern Section

Second-Round Results

Division I

Camarillo 1, Highland 0

Division II

Hart 4, Glendora 1

Thousand Oaks 5, Hueneme 0

La Palma Kennedy 2, Valencia 1

Crescenta Valley 2, California 0

Division IV

Chaminade 2, San Dimas 0

Bonita 3, Alemany 1

Calabasas 4, Ridgecrest Burroughs 2

Harvard-Westlake 6, Azusa 0

Division V

La Reina 3, Westridge 0

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 1, Paraclete 0

Pasadena Poly 2, Village Christian 1

St. Bonaventure 4, Santa Maria St. Joseph 3

Division VI

Faith Baptist 5, Avalon 3

Cornerstone Chr. 6, Santa Maria Vly Chr. 1

Montclair Prep 11, Santa Clarita Christian 1

Victor Valley Christian 3, Grace Brethren 2

CITY SECTION ROUNDUP, PAGE 12