Nine-Run Inning Lifts Pacifica to Division III Title

Top-seeded Garden Grove Pacifica, trailing by three runs, scored nine times in the bottom of the sixth inning to shock unseeded La Mirada, 9-3, and win the Southern Section Division III title Saturday at Barber Park in Irvine.

“We haven’t given up nine runs total in our last 20 games,” said Matadores Coach Rich Trujillo, whose team dropped to 27-7. “I don’t know what happened.”

What happened is that every bad break for Pacifica (31-2) in the first five innings was returned in full in the sixth. Jodie Legaspi opened the sixth with the first of her two doubles in the inning.

Amy Mayrhofer, who threw out a runner at home plate in the first inning, singled home the tying run after an infield hit, two errors and two intentional walks. Second baseman Crystal Vieyra, who saved at least one run in the fifth inning with her two-out stab of a ground ball, blooped a single to left field for the lead.

Then Legaspi doubled home two runs, chasing La Mirada starter Alyssa Gutierrez (16-4) from the game. An out later, Ashlyn Watson singled home two more runs off reliever Simone Holland.

Brittany Weil (29-2), who gave up seven hits and struck out one, retired the Matadores in order in the seventh to give Pacifica its fourth title. The Mariners won three in a row from 1997 to 1999.

-- Martin Henderson