Santiago Gets Plenty of Mileage Out of Mowatt

Corona Santiago sophomore Taryne Mowatt landed a big-game trophy last week when she outdueled junior Jamee Juarez, 1-0, and beat Hacienda Heights Wilson, then No. 2 in The Times’ rankings.

Mowatt struck out 21 in nine innings and gave up only one hit. Juarez struck out 16 and gave up three hits.

“As a freshman [Mowatt] was MVP of the Mountain View League, and we’re very young this year--almost as young as she is--but she’s the real deal,” Coach John Perez said. “Thank God she came to my school.”

Mowatt (11-3) has 200 strikeouts in 113 innings and has given up 26 hits.

She has three no-hitters and six one-hitters.

She opened the Charter Oak tournament with a perfect game against Los Altos and finished the tournament with a four-hit, 13-strikeout performance, beating Covina Charter Oak, 3-0, in the championship game on Saturday.

Mowatt won the pitching duel against Juarez and Wilson when Sarah Murphy’s bunt scored Jackie Adishian with one out in the bottom of the ninth in the international tiebreaker.

“Our school has been open since 1996,” Perez said. “We won a title in 1998, and that game against Wilson on Saturday was probably the second-greatest game I’ve coached in this school’s history, next to our title game against Rosary.

“Juarez is a great pitcher. She’s awesome.”

Mowatt, however, was a little more awesome.

And Santiago (11-3-1) is poised to be one of the elite teams in the next couple of years. The Sharks have only one senior.

“We’re always good, and we’re worrying about this year,” Perez said, “but we’ll be trouble the next two years.”

Century spotlight: The Irvine Woodbridge tournament continues this week with 13 teams ranked in The Times’ top 25.

Three of the eight quarterfinalists on Monday were from the Century League and are ranked among the top four in the Southland.

The three powers were on the same side of the bracket, which created a quarterfinal with No. 1 Santa Ana Foothill facing No. 3 Anaheim Canyon on Monday. Foothill won, 1-0.

When the 32-team tournament resumes Saturday, Foothill faces last season’s second-place team in the Century League, No. 4 El Modena.

“I was trying to out-think the system and went through the seeding process for the first 20 teams,” said Woodbridge Coach Alan Dugard, who is the tournament’s director. “I screwed up. I should have put El Modena in the other bracket instead of Villa Park.”

Foothill advanced with a three-hitter by Alison Yin (11-0) and a run-scoring double by Caitlin Lowe against Canyon pitcher Lisa Geer (8-2), who gave up four hits.

Hit and trot: Heather Slettvet of Canyon has five home runs, but none were quite like No. 4 on Saturday against San Clemente. Her three-run homer was on a hit-and-run play during an 8-2 victory.

She added another homer later that day, giving Canyon a 1-0 victory in the second round of the Woodbridge tournament.

Ouch: Aliso Niguel’s Joe Miller has coached sports for three decades, but never has he seen a team endure injuries the way his Wolverines have this season.

Four key players have missed a combined 57 games.

Second baseman Chezare Sievers (torn anterior cruciate ligament) has missed 17 games; shortstop Lindsay Schafer (broken wrist), 13 games; pitcher Amanda Samonte (spine injury), 17 games, and catcher Sheen Jarvis (groin pull), 11 games.

“I have never experienced this before, and I’ve coached baseball, football and basketball for 32 years,” Miller said. “And that’s just the start of it.”

Utility player Danielle Cardenas broke her nose in a game on March 14 and missed four games, left fielder/pitcher Tiffanie Burnett broke her nose and backup catcher Ashley Klein broke her finger in the same game on March 22.

If teams need to be strong up the middle, Aliso Niguel’s injuries have undermined that, as well as the pitching of junior Jennifer Skaare.

Among her performances, she had no-hit Anaheim Canyon through seven innings before losing in the eighth, 7-2; and she lost a 13-inning, 18-strikeout game to Fullerton Troy, 1-0.

“It’s a shame because she deserves a little better fate,” Miller said.

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The Times’ Rankings

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