No more comeback magic for Foothill

The Foothill Major All-Star softball team had been in this situation before.

On Saturday, the squad found itself down big before rallying to eliminate Crescenta Valley.

On Sunday, the girls again fell behind by a large margin, this time to Tujunga.

However, there would be no great comeback this time around.

Foothill lost to Tujunga, 15-5, in the District 16 championship at Scholl Canyon Fields. The game was called after five innings.
“They started out really strong, but when it gets way from you, it gets away from you,” Foothill Manager Jason Georges said. “Sometimes it gets way from you and there’s not much you can do. [Tujunga] hit the ball perfect. They were dropping it right in the pocket. I compliment them. If they can carry that through to the next tournament, they’ll do well.”

Much like the game against Crescenta Valley, Foothill grabbed an early lead with three runs in the first inning. Miya Legaspi got things going with a bloop single, and teammate Emily Mulcahey drove her in with a double. Reagan Atallah wrapped up the frame with a two-run triple, giving her team a 3-0 lead.

“I was thinking ‘Oh my gosh, did I really just hit that?’” said Atallah, who had three RBI, of the big hit. “It was good, yeah. I was happy because everyone was supportive.”

However, Tujunga came to life in the top half of the third inning, scoring 11 runs for an 11-3 lead.

On Saturday, Foothill rallied from eight runs down to pull out the win.

“We kept saying, ‘Think about what we did yesterday,’” said Mulcahey, who had a pair of hits and scored a run. “’Think of everything we did yesterday.’ It didn’t work out.”

Foothill did chip away at the deficit. In the bottom half of the third inning, Atallah drove in Nicolette Pirjanian, who reached base with a walk. In the fourth, Pirjanian singled in Legaspi to cut the score to 11-5.

However, Tujunga put the game away in the fifth. Eryn Llewellyn provided the dagger with an inside-the-park home run for the 15-5 advantage.

Mulcahey pitched the entire game for Foothill. While Tujunga got to her for two big innings, she looked sharp in the other three.

“When she was on, she was focusing,” Georges said. “She was just locked on every pitch.”

Legaspi and Pirjanian each had two hits and two runs scored

“I know I’m not going to forget it,” Mulcahey said of the tournament. “It was a lot of fun and I know as a team we played well together. You win some, you lose some.”