Riverside Poly Tops Division I

Somehow, in Riverside Poly’s celebration of winning its first Southern Section Division I softball title, Mindy Cowles got squeezed to the outside, which hardly seemed fair. She is, after all, the core of this team.

But Cowles didn’t mind because she had what she so desperately wanted in her senior season -- a title. And it was another player, junior Lindsey Ubrun, who had delivered it with one swing of her bat.

Ubrun knocked a long fly over the center-field fence for the only run in top-seeded Poly’s 1-0 victory over Los Alamitos (22-9-2) at Barber Park in Irvine on Friday night. Ubrun’s fifth-inning blast was reminiscent of the 1993 shot by Sara Griffin that gave Simi Valley a 1-0 victory over Los Alamitos in its last championship appearance.

It was Ubrun’s first home run in three varsity seasons. It was only her second hit in five playoff victories. The other, a double, delivered the winning run against fourth-seeded Santa Ana Mater Dei in the semifinals.

“It was something that was flat,” Ubrun said of Stacey Nelson’s one-ball, no-strike offering to lead off the fifth inning. The 210-foot homer was one of three hits by Poly (26-5) off Nelson (17-9).

As for Cowles (19-4), she did her part, getting tough in the circle when she needed to. She gave up five hits, all in the first four innings, but stranded five runners. It was a different game after the homer. Cowles retired nine of the last 10, the exception reaching on an error.

“They had a lot of opportunities,” said Cowles. “It made me nervous.”

DIVISION V

In the finals for the first time since 1983, Ontario Christian (25-5) won its first section title since 1978 with a 1-0 victory over defending champion and fourth-seeded Sun Valley Village Christian in the Southern Section Division V title game Friday at Barber Park in Irvine.

Ontario Christian managed only three hits against Stanford-bound Lauren Nydam (18-10), one in each of the last three innings. The final was the biggest as junior Rachelle Conroy had an oppostive-field, leadoff double that was about a foot beyond the outstretched glove of right fielder Anjie Jones and about a foot fair. Conroy took third on a wild pitch and scored on Brittany Burks’ grounder.

Jessica Hibma (20-3) threw a seven-hitter to get the victory despite Village Christian’s putting runners on base in six of the eight innings.

Error-less defense was critical for Ontario Christian. It was evident in the eighth inning. After a leadoff single and error allowed Jones to reach second base, she was thrown out at third by Conroy on an attempted sacrifice bunt. Alex Kinney, who reached on the bunt, was thrown out by catcher Nicole Prestia trying to steal.