Title victory is legendary
GLENDALE — One team achieved its goal by advancing to the championship game.
The other took its first step toward what it hopes is a repeat performance this summer.
The Foothill team was simply pleased with playing in Monday’s title game of the Major Softball Tri-Cities Tournament at Scholl Canyon Field.
It also knew it would be difficult to defeat the Lady Legends, a team that consisted of 11 players who helped the Burbank All-Star team advance to the Western Regional Tournament in 2009.
The Lady Legends — who defeated Foothill seven times this season prior to Monday — benefited from eight errors to come away with an 8-1 title-clinching victory.
“We’ve been nervous against this team all year, but we weren’t nervous today,” Foothill Coach Tyson Howard said. “They were the team to beat all year.
“We just wanted to get to this game and we did that. We knew we would have trouble beating Burbank.”
The Lady Legends outscored Foothill, 105-24, this season and had just two losses, both of which came by forfeit because its players had other commitments. It easily defeated the rest of its competition, finishing the season 19-2.
Lady Legends Coach Bruce Del Castillo said his team was “lucky,” on Monday.
“We definitely didn’t play our game today,” said Del Castillo, whose all-star team fell one run short of playing in the title game of last year’s Western Regionals, falling short of a chance to advance to the Little League World Series. “It was to our benefit that they made those errors. We got lucky.”
The Lady Legends took advantage of three errors and used a triple to score three first-inning runs. They added three more runs in the fourth inning and two more in the sixth, only two of which were earned.
“We weren’t ready when the play came,” Howard said. “We weren’t moving our feet.”
Bridgette Pisa scored twice for the Lady Legends, and Delaney Nicol, Davina Del Castillo, Michelle Santiago, Jordan Meltzer, Kayla Delgado and Briana King each scored once.
Lady Legends pitchers Jade Teetsel and Del Castillo combined to allow three hits and struck out 10 on 100 pitches. Teetsel tossed the first four innings before giving way to Del Castillo. They didn’t allow a hit after the third inning.
Foothill (13-9) had a chance to tie the score in the bottom half of the first inning when it loaded the bases with no outs. But Teetsel struck out two consecutive batters and walked another – allowing Sammy Fabian to score – before inducing a fielder’s choice for the final out. Foothill did not threaten again.
After the contest, the Lady Legends had their sights set on the District 16 All-Stars Tournament, which starts July 8. The Burbank All-Stars finished a historic season with a 39-2 record in 2009.
The Major Softball team went farther than any squad — baseball or softball — in the eight-year history of the Burbank Little League.
Before taking part in the Western Regional Tournament, Burbank won District 16, Section 2 and Division 3 championships.
The Burbank squad had a fine effort in the Western Regional Tournament in 2009. Behind solid pitching and timely hitting the team went 4-2 in the event in Vancouver, Wash. and advanced to the event semifinals.
Burbank fell one run short of making it to the title game, and the World Series.