Foothill claims 10-11 title

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — There was no one big hit and there wasn’t one standout performance.

No, for the Foothill 10-11 All-Star softball team, it was a relentless barrage of singles, walks, stolen bases and nonstop offense — supplemented by two stellar pitching outings — that led it to an ultra-impressive 10-0 mercy-rule win and the District 16 title on Wednesday afternoon at Scholl Canyon.

“I’m really excited,” said winning pitcher Alex Howard, who tossed two shutout innings and also had two singles, two runs batted in and two runs scored, “and I hope we go farther than we did last year cause I think this team’s better.”

Howard, who also had one of her team’s eight stolen bases, contributed to an eight-hit attack for Foothill, all of them singles, including a three-for-three performance from Tiffany Bartamian, who also had two RBIs and two runs.

“We tried to keep the pace of the game up,” said Foothill Coach Tyson Howard, whose team bested CV, 23-6, a night earlier in the two-team tournament. “That’s the idea, we want to play fast.”

In a game that lasted roughly an hour, things were certainly going fast, as Foothill pushed a run across in the second via Miranda Diaz, who scored from third on an error after having stolen first and second, before a four-run outburst in the third and a five-run barrage in the fourth.

With the win, the team, which is largely the same as the District 16 9-10 champion from a season ago, advances to the Section 2 tournament, which begins on Friday at El Dorado Little League when Foothill squares off against the District 40 champ.

For CV Coach Chris Boone, after his team’s loss on Tuesday, his aspirations were for a better showing, which he got.

“My goal was to play better than we did yesterday and I think we did that,” Boone said. “I’m really proud about how our girls did.”

CV was able to gather up five hits, with Aprylle Salvador going two for two.

“We hit, but we didn’t hit consistently enough to score,” Boone said.

Most of that had to do with starting pitcher Jordan Lousararian and Allen, who combined for the four-inning shutout.

Lousararian issued a walk and allowed singles to Salvador and Viviana Sandoval-Walsh with one out in the top of the first, but a 4-3 double play ended the threat.

Another pair of singles came about in the top of the second, but Lousararian notched a strikeout and made a splendid catch of a popout to end the inning.

Allen retired the final five CV batters of the game, notching four strikeouts in two innings of work against just one hit.

“Our pitchers really [were] on today,” Tyson Howard said.

So too were the hitters, and the defense for that matter, as Foothill had no errors and looked unstoppable in the third and fourth innings.

A walk by Sammy Fabian, a single by Howard and a RBI single by Bartamian began the third, upping the lead to 2-0 before a fielder’s choice by Lousararian didn’t result in an out and also brought Howard in for a 3-0 advantage.

In the fourth, another walk, this time by Arianna Campbell, began the frame before Fabian, Howard, Bartamian and Lousararian recorded consecutive singles to push the lead to 9-0. Lousararian worked her way to third on a pair of steals before scoring on a dropped third strike to end the game.

“We practice a lot,” Alex Howard said. “We had a lot of batting practice.”

It certainly showed on Wednesday.