One tournament title in the bag, one to go.
Senior pitcher Delaney Hull scattered three hits and pitched 62/3 shutout innings as Capistrano Valley won the Saddleback Valley Tournament on Thursday night with a 6-1 victory over Santa Margarita at Alicia Park.
Since dropping its season opener, Capistrano Valley has reeled off seven straight wins, including four over the past four days to capture its first tournament championship of the young season.
The Cougars will try to add another trophy to their mantle on Saturday when they play in the semifinals of the Timberwolf Classic against Gahr of Cerritos (8-0), the top-ranked team in CIF-SS Division 2.
“We played near perfect and did what we needed to do,” Cougars coach Pete Manarino said. “We executed offensively, got timely hitting. Defensively we made one mistake. Our catcher (Ally Taylor) made a beautiful play. (Jasmine Sievers) made a beautiful play. We played solid defense. That’s what we want to do. And our pitcher is tough.”
After an error and walk in the bottom of the first inning, Hull never allowed multiple Eagles to reach base in the same inning again. She set down the side in order three times, and retired eight batters in a row at one point.
Other than a pair of Marisa Pla infield singles, Hull allowed only a late RBI single to Santa Margarita’s Paige Vargas in the bottom of the seventh.
“She’s a special, special pitcher,” Manarino said of Hull, who was named most valuable pitcher of the tournament. “She’s very passionate and very competitive. … I think we only had two errors this entire tournament, so that allows her to be aggressive.”
Sievers, Capo Valley’s shortstop, finished 2 for 3 at the plate. She had a triple and added an RBI bloop single in the fourth. Emily George also accounted for an RBI single, which was part of a three-run fourth.
Taylor and freshman Giulia Koutsoyanopulos brought in a pair of runs in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly and an RBI single to center, putting the Cougars ahead 6-0.
In the Coach Takk Classic:
Fullerton 10, El Rancho 3: Senior catcher Alyssa Brundage drove in four runs with an RBI double and a three-run homer, leading the Indians (5-4) against the visiting Dons. Junior Alexis Silva went 2 for 4 and scored three runs. Kristin Smith had a pair of base hits, driving in a run and scoring another.
In a nonleague game:
Mater Dei 8, Roosevelt of Eastvale 7: Senior shortstop Neli Casares-Maher capped a wild seven-run seventh inning with a walk-off two-run homer, putting the exclamation point on the Monarchs’ (9-1) wild comeback victory. Mater Dei trailed 7-1 before its final at-bat. Casares-Maher went 2 for 4 with three RBI, and Kelli Godin finished 2 for 4 with two RBI.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com
