El Modena Takes a Risk, but There Is No Reward

No one can accuse El Modena of not being true to itself.

The Vanguards, in their first Southern Section softball championship game, went out running--the same way they got there.

And top-seeded Whittier La Serna was grateful.

La Serna catcher Ru Andrade threw out pinch-runner Heather Krumpols to slow a seventh-inning rally, and La Serna went on to a 4-1 victory in the Division III final at Barber Park in Irvine.

Had El Modena (21-11-1) not been so aggressive, the section’s lone remaining wild-card team might have been in position to win.

Instead . . .

“That shut them down totally,” said La Serna Coach Ginger Larsin, whose team scored four runs in the second inning, then coasted behind Denise Linke until the seventh.

“[Steve Harrington is] a very aggressive coach, and he takes risks. That’s the scouting report on him.”

But the aggressive baserunning that paid dividends in El Modena’s playoff victories over Santa Margarita and Sonora backfired in a last-gasp effort against La Serna (26-3).

Linke (20-2) had retired 15 in a row before Elizabeth Walters’ leadoff single in the seventh. After a strikeout, Jessica Hejna reached on an error by shortstop Brittany Putich. With runners at first and second, Krumpols pinch-ran for Walters and was thrown out attempting to steal third base.

It was the second out of the inning, and El Modena still needed four runs. Five La Serna players who met with the media afterward called it the play of the game. “They had to score four runs,” said Jessica Cole, who followed Jamie Marker’s double with a run-scoring single in the second inning. “I wasn’t worried.”

Harrington, who won a section title with West Hills Chaminade in 1999 and took Chaminade to the Division IV final last season, defended his decision to run.

“We needed to make something happen,” he said. “We’re going to make you make the plays, and if you do, I’ll tip my hat. But if you don’t, we’re going to burn you.”

Harrington didn’t have a crystal ball, but subsequent good fortune magnified his seventh-inning decision. An error on Lonnie Wilson’s ground ball and Lindsay Klein’s run-scoring single put runners at first and second. Kathleen Galbraith then grounded out to shortstop to end the game.

Had there been only one out, a Galbraith ground out would have moved the tying run to second base with two outs.

That wasn’t the only time La Serna found good fortune.

The Lancers benefited from two close plays in the second inning. After Cole’s RBI single, there was a grounder to third on which Andrade was ruled safe at first, and a second bouncer to third baseman Lauren Smith that was ruled a fair ball.

Without those calls, La Serna might have scored only one run, not four. “They were the deciding factor in that rally,” said La Serna senior Stacy Oliver. “They kept the momentum going.”

Heather Shook followed with an infield single to third base that pushed across a second run, a wild pitch by Klein (19-11) pushed across a third, and then Oliver singled into the hole at shortstop for a 4-0 margin.

La Serna also showed its mettle in the first inning. Norrelle Dickson hit a leadoff single. True to El Modena’s nature, Dickson stole second base, her 23rd steal of the season, and took third on a ground ball. But then Linke, who averages less than a strikeout an inning, got back-to-back strikeouts of Walters and cleanup batter Ashley Van Boxmeer.

“[Linke] stepped up,” Harrington said. “It would have been nice to get the lead.”

Instead, El Modena is looking toward the future. With seven sophomores in the starting lineup, the Vanguards can do that. “We’re not going to forget this,” Dickson said. “It’s going to make it sweeter when we win. Junior and senior years, I’m getting two rings.”