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Published on 08/14/1995 All articles from this issue

Storm quieted, Falcons win consolations at ASA Nationals

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By Alex Valdes

After a summer spent on the road and on the diamond, several local softball teams wrapped up their seasons this past weekend with out-of-town tournaments.

In Rockford, Ill., Bernie Quintero's Los Altos Storm lost two of three games and was eliminated at the 18-and-Under ASA Nationals. In that same tournament, the Lady Falcons received pivotal help from Los Altos High players Maya Garcia, Robin Johnson

and Liz Penny to win the consolation bracket.

Meanwhile, the Los Altos Express dropped all three of its games in the Western States B-Girls Area Championships at Lodi, an event comprised of 32 teams from California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.

Garcia split the catcher duties with Johnson and provided consistent fielding and hitting. In Friday's 12-3 victory over Crush of Massachusetts, Garcia ripped a two-run triple in the first inning to knock in Allison Andrade and Renee Sease, each of whom had singled.

In a nine-run third inning, Garcia and Andrade kicked off the rally with singles.

In Saturday's 3-2 win over the Peppers of Kansas City, Mo., Garcia doubled in the second inning and scored on a throwing error. The Lady Falcons then clinched the win with a two-run third inning, keyed by Andrade's RBI triple and Sease's RBI single.

Penny had two hits in a 6-2 victory over Sudden Impact of Houston, Texas.

Before winning all three of its games in the consolation bracket, the Lady Falcons lost its first two games, a 1-0 loss in nine innings to the Virginia Shamrocks last Wednesday and a 4-1 defeat to the Roadrunners of Tucson, Ariz., on Thursday.

Teams that lost their first two games of the tournament moved into the consolation bracket, which was comprised of 16 teams.

The Lady Falcons' achievements this season included titles in the Santa Clara Metro, Sacramento Regional and Twin Creeks tournaments.

At Lodi, the Express committed a combined 17 errors and mustered only 13 hits in three losses. However, the team was without three players: pitcher Lucy Johnson, who didn't arrive until the middle of the final game on Saturday, as well as Lindsay Dressler and Jessie Vernon.

The Express, which finished with a 16-23 record on the season, did have the lead or was tied with its three opponents. But errors and lack of offensive consistency combined to melt those opportunities away.

On Friday, the Express was tied 1-1 with Heat Wave of Hughson but allowed three runs in the top of the sixth in an eventual 5-1 loss. On Saturday, the Express had a 4-2 lead after four innings against Spirit of Colorado Springs, Colo., but gave up five runs in the final three innings and finished with nine errors. And later on Saturday, the Express maintained a 5-5 tie with the Gold Strikkers of Jackson only to surrender three runs in the bottom of the seventh in an 8-5 defeat.

"We always seem to have an inning from hell," said Express first baseman Amy Peters. "There's always one inning when we can't come together, when we can't get outs and make errors that we shouldn't make...Maybe it's because we don't keep up the same intensity and get down on ourselves. Sometimes there are tough plays that we don't make and sometimes there are easy plays that we don't make."

The Express' best chance occurred against the Spirit. Mia Sibug led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run and Peters singled to drive in An An Rodriguez, who had reached third base via a single, error and stolen base. Los Altos took a 4-2 lead with a pair of runs in the third. Carrie Fuller, Natalie Fry and Mikki Figueroa set the table with singles, and runs scored on an error and a bases-loaded walk.