It’s Change for the Better for Mater Dei’s Rodriguez

Britni Rodriguez has anticipated her pitching assignment today at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley for quite some time.

Having spent another long season on the junior varsity at Fullerton Rosary last year, the junior right-hander is looking forward to demonstrating her skills in front of the varsity.

Only Rodriguez won’t be wearing a Rosary uniform in the pivotal Serra League matchup. She will be pitching for Santa Ana Mater Dei.

Believing she could make a bigger contribution by transferring schools, she made the switch last spring. So far, she hasn’t been disappointed.

Rodriguez is 7-2 with a 0.90 earned-run average for the third-ranked Monarchs going into today’s game against No. 14 Rosary (16-3, 2-0).

Sophomore Briana Santos, herself a transfer from Garden Grove Pacifica, is 9-1 with a 0.42 ERA. Along with Rodriguez, they form one of the stronger pitching duos in the Southland.

Rodriguez had hoped to play a starring role at Rosary, but with a junior and a freshman dominating the varsity rotation last season, she didn’t want to watch from the bench or play again for the junior varsity this spring.

The final letdown came, Rodriguez said, after she struck out 19 in a junior varsity game last season. All she received was the game ball and a pat on the back from Coach Tom Tice.

“Even better would have been an opportunity to pitch on varsity,” Rodriguez said. “I never asked, ‘What’s the deal?’ I just transferred. That took care of that situation.”

Tice said he was surprised when Rodriguez suddenly left school.

“It was strange,” he said. “She would have fit right in [this season]. She did a great job on junior varsity as a freshman and sophomore and suddenly she wasn’t here any more. I liked Britni. I thought Rosary was the right place for her.”

It didn’t take Rodriguez long to prove herself to the Monarchs (16-3, 3-0), who needed to fill the pitching void left by the graduation of Riki Paredes.

After losing her first start on March 7 to Los Alamitos, Rodriguez came back a week later to throw a four-hitter to beat Orange El Modena, 1-0, in the quarterfinals of the Ramada Express tournament of Champions at Bullhead City, Nev. The Vanguards were No. 1 in The Times’ preseason rankings.

Her streak of seven consecutive victories ended Saturday in a 1-0 loss to pitcher Taryne Mowatt and No. 1 Corona Santiago.

Rodriguez had matched Mowatt with a two-hit shutout going into the bottom of the seventh, but the game came to abrupt end when Mowatt hit a double with one out and Tiffany Wright followed with a game-ending line drive down the third base line.

As the winning run crossed the plate, Santiago’s third base coach threw his cap in the air and it landed just a few feet from Rodriguez in the pitcher’s circle. Rodriguez kept her poise and calmly walked off the field, focusing only on her actions of the preceding moments.

“I got on myself about that situation,” she said. “With the runner on base, I should have taken more time to gather myself.”

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Junior shortstop Allie Aleman seemed the least likely candidate to deliver the game-winning hit off Mowatt in the second game of Mater Dei’s doubleheader at Santiago on Saturday.

After all, Aleman had only seven hits in 42 at-bats at the start of the day, but she delivered a bases-loaded triple in the fourth inning to account for all the runs in the 3-0 victory.

“It felt good to get that hit,” she said. “I’ve been sort of down on myself because I haven’t been hitting as well as normal. I knew I’d eventually get out of it though.”

Aleman, who played second base for the Monarchs last season, showed signs of solving Mowatt in the first game, getting one of two hits in the 1-0 loss.

Mowatt, who threw 88 consecutive scoreless innings last season, has two no-hitters and six one-hitters this season.

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Simi Valley Royal is on a roll in the Marmonte League. The No. 6 Highlanders (12-4, 6-2) have won their last five leagues games -- the last four by shutouts -- to move to within one game of No. 7 Simi Valley (11-5, 7-1) with six games left.

Royal defeated Simi Valley last Tuesday, 2-0, behind Jordan McPherson’s two-hitter. The Highlanders then made up for an earlier loss to No. 8 Thousand Oaks with a 1-0 victory in eight innings Thursday.

The Highlanders were shut out earlier in the season in losses to Newbury Park, Whittier California and Pacifica, but Coach Bill Dishon moved Nicole Hartfield from the middle of the batting order to its top and the offense began to click.

She had two hits against Simi Valley last week, including a first-inning single that led to an unearned run, and three hits against Thousand Oaks.

“The key was finding a good leadoff hitter,” Dishon said. “I think we’ve found a home for Hartfield there.”