Crescenta Valley Major softball team sees season end in title contest

QUARTZ HILL — Crescenta Valley Major All-Star softball Coach Dave Fox liked the makeup of his squad throughout the playoffs.

Crescenta Valley exemplified character in winning the District 16 title before advancing to the Section 2 Tournament.

Unfortunately for Crescenta Valley, it occasionally had one inning in most of its postseason contests in which it struggled in some facet.

“We are a four-inning team, sometimes a five-inning team,” said Fox, whose team saw its season wrap up Monday night with a 6-4 loss to Granada Hills in the Section 2 championship contest at Quartz Hill Little League Fields. “We were playing our fourth game in as many days and we struggled at times tonight in the field and with leaving too many runners on base.”

Crescenta Valley did all it could to extend its season, battling back from a two-run deficit in the middle innings and then having the go-ahead run at the plate with two runners on and two outs in the sixth inning. However, Granada Hills starting pitcher Ashley Murphy got Taylor Hoogenhuizen on a comebacker to the circle to end the game and send Granada Hills, which captured the District 40 championship, to the Divisional Tournament in Colton.

Fox said Crescenta Valley turned in a reasonable effort, especially after staving off elimination Sunday with an 8-6 victory against host Quartz Hill.

“We were able to fight through some things and we had a chance at the end,” said Fox, whose squad finished with 11 hits and stranded eight runners. “We just have those one or two innings where something doesn’t go right and you find out its just part of the game.”

Crescenta Valley, which received three hits apiece from right fielder Joelle Ly and Melissa Iyoya, appeared to be in good position to enter the sixth tied at 3. However, an error by the first baseman with two outs gave Granada Hills a 4-3 lead before it tacked on two more runs to extend the advantage to 6-4.

“We knew we’d be in for a good game,” said Ly, who had a pair of singles and a double while reaching base safely in all four plate appearances. “We couldn’t get out of that [in the fifth].

“We wanted to win. We just came up a little short.”

Crescenta Valley, which fell, 5-3, to Granada Hills in a winner’s-bracket game Saturday, grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a groundout by Tyler Herman. Granada Hills tied it at 1 in its half of the first on an error by the second baseman.

Granada Hills scored twice in the second to take a 3-1 lead. Malia Risdell recorded a run-scoring triple to make it 2-1 before Julie Guzman made it 3-1 with a run-scoring single.

Crescenta Valley trimmed the deficit to 3-2 in the third on a run-scoring single by Iyoya before making it 3-3 in the fifth on a run-scoring double by Ly.

Granada Hills scored three more runs in the fifth to make it 6-3.Crescenta Valley closed out the scoring in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Ly with two outs.