Norco captures Carew Classic

ANAHEIM - Stanford-bound Teagan Gerhart's pitching prowess is well documented, but the Norco ace showed she can do damage with her bat as well.

Gerhart delivered an RBI single with no outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Norco (15-2) a 3-2 victory over Vista Murrieta (13-4) in the championship game of the Michelle Carew Classic on Saturday night at Peralta Park.

Gerhart also pitched all nine innings and struck out 12. She also homered and got the shutout in Norco's 3-0 semifinal victory over El Camino of Oceanside earlier in the day.

Canyon bounced back from its semifinal loss to Vista Murrieta with a dominating 6-0 victory over El Camino of Oceanside in the third-place game.

Nebraska-bound Taylor Edwards went 3 for 4 with a home run and four RBIs to power Vista Murrieta past Canyon in the semifinals.

Canyon co-coach Lance Eddy said he thought his team needed to develop more of a killer instinct to go along with all the young talent they have and the Comanches delivered against the Wildcats.

Briana Gwaltney went 2 for 2 with a sacrifice fly and a two-run homer, Cheyanne Tarango went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and Shannon Bustillos went 2 for 3 with a run scored to lead the offense.

Tarango was solid in the circle, limiting El Camino, ranked No. 5 in San Diego County, to two hits. She only walked two and struck out six to nail down the victory.

The Comanches, ranked No. 2 in the county, went 4-1 in the tournament and upped their record to 15-6. El Camino fell to 12-4 with back-to-back losses to Canyon and Norco.

Kailyn Johnson belted a three-run homer to help Esperanza beat Lakewood, 5-0, and get into the fifth-place game.

But things got off to a grim start for the Aztecs (12-9-1) and Valencia (16-4) of Valencia went on to a 3-1 victory.

Tori Balta and Lauren Boser led off the game with back-to-back homers and Amy Moore drove in another run with a two-out double to stake the Vikings to a 3-0 lead.

Esperanza's Kelsea Roth drove in Kristin Scharkey with a bloop single to center field in the bottom of the fourth to cut it to 3-1.

But the Aztecs failed to get anybody across the plate after loading up the bases in the bottom of the sixth. They got runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the seventh before Valencia pitcher Carly Mortensen got three consecutive strikeouts to end the game.

Sarah Moore drove in Nicole Chavez with a single in the top of the fifth and Mariel Massei added a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to lead Ayala (13-8) of Chino Hills past El Toro (8-13) in a consolation game.

The Mustangs (13-5) bounced back from the Ayala loss with a 3-0 victory over Long Beach Wilson (14-7-1). Massey just missed getting her fifth no-hitter of the season, settling for a one-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts to beat the Bruins.

Contact the writer: carias@ocregister.com