Long Beach Tops Dons in State Softball

Nina Distefano pitched a five-hitter, striking out three, to help Long Beach defeat Santa Ana, 1-0, in the state softball championships Saturday at Fresno State.

Natalie Castro and Sharmaine Kendrick each had two hits for Santa Ana (39-13-1), which will need to win three games today to win the state title. Santa Ana plays Sacramento (41-9-1) at 10 a.m. for a chance to advance to the final against Long Beach (42-3) in the double-elimination tournament.

In other games at the state tournament:

Fullerton falls--The Hornets (36-11-1) beat Shasta in nine innings, 3-2, in an elimination game, before being knocked out of the tournament by a 4-2 loss to Palomar. Fullerton’s Colleen Burdick homered in the bottom of the ninth to break a 2-2 tie against Shasta.

In the Southern California baseball regionals:

Saddleback 4, Santa Ana 0--Vinny Valiente led off with a home run and Reid Santos (6-3) pitched a four-hitter for Saddleback (33-11), which will play Santa Ana again today for a spot in the state tournament.

Santa Ana (35-10) staved off elimination by defeating El Camino, 17-4. Daniel Franklin and Mikela Olsen homered and Patrick Breen and Anthony Gonzalez each had three hits for the Dons.

Cypress 10, San Bernardino 2--The Chargers (30-16) stayed alive in their regional by rebounding from a 10-inning, 7-5 loss to top-seeded L.A. Harbor (35-6-1) in the winner’s bracket final.

Cypress’ Vern Sterry struck out 12 and Ryan Hubbard had three hits, including a home run, and stole a base to become Cypress’ single-season (33) and career (40) leader in the win over San Bernardino.

Orange Coast 8, Grossmont 7 (10)--Trailing by a run going into the bottom of the 10th, Cliff Cotton hit an RBI triple to tie the score at 7, and Jake Garcia later singled home Cotton to help the Pirates (26-17) advance to play host Cuesta at 11 a.m. today.

At the women’s badminton state championships:

Tran wins two--Orange Coast freshman Cynthia Tran defeated Phyrun Than of El Camino, 11-3, 11-2, in the singles final, and teamed with Rosie Pham to win the doubles title at Irvine Valley.