Indians Jockey for Inside Track

Player for player, Hart High has the most talented softball team in the region.

Now it’s up to these thoroughbreds to prove they’re not just quarter horses.

The Indians defeated host Quartz Hill, 4-0, on Tuesday in a Southern Section Division II second-round game to advance to the quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive season.

Can they get past the quarterfinals for the first time in that span?

“God, I hope so,” said pitcher Lindsey Kontra.

Hart (25-5) will host California, a 1-0 winner over Rio Mesa, on Thursday.

Kontra, one of Hart’s four Division I-bound seniors, did everything she could to help the cause.

She struck out 10 and walked none in a four-hitter, not allowing a runner past first base.

“Lindsey was on,” Coach Cathy Giordano said. “Her riseball was working and her changeup was fantastic.”

In the first round, Pittsburgh-bound Casey Pickard (12-3) threw a one-hitter and allowed only one runner past first in a 6-0 victory over Buena. Pickard had two hits against Quartz Hill.

The loss ended a great run for pitcher Kellie Cox (13-3) and Golden League champion Quartz Hill (16-10), which had won 12 of its last 13.

Cox, a senior and two-time Times All-Valley selection, was two for three and finished her career with 137 hits and a .429 average, .555 this season.

Cox, who struck out six and allowed five hits, yielded a run-scoring single to Erica Duhart in the second for a 1-0 Hart lead.

In the fifth, the Indians added three runs--two unearned--despite not hitting the ball out of the infield.

Three bunts, including Sara Dean’s squeeze to drive in Kristin Lueke, four groundouts and three bad decisions on where to throw the ball helped seal the game.