UPDATE: The Los Alamitos Griffins softball team downed Orange Lutheran 3-2 and will play Norco at 8pm tonight for the championship at the Dave Kops Tournament of Champions in Bullhead City, Arizona.
OLu, ranked No. 1 in Orange County and seeded No. 2 at the tournament, with Los Al at No. 2 in OC and No. 3 in the tournament. Norco comes in as the top team in the state and the tourney top seed.
Junior Tyler Denhart collected the win, giving up eight hits but spreading them around for the most part so her six strikeouts had maximum effectiveness. The Griffins had only four hits but got them in the first two innings.
Original story below:
The Los Alamitos Griffins softball team got off to a good start on their annual trek to the desert, winnig their first three games to reach Saturday’s semi-finals at the Dave Kops Tournament of Champions at Bullhead City, Arizona .
The Griffins, ranked No. 2 in Orange County and 19th in USA Today’s first Super 25 Expert Rankings of the season, opened play on Thursday, by defeating Cleveland (N.M.) 6-1 Thursday, then put together a pair of wins on Friday, a 2-1 nailbiter over Crescenta Valley and a 12-9 slugfest against Villa Park. The last two games went to tie breakers.
That set up a semi-final showdown with long-time rival Orange Lutheran. Last year the two teams shared the tourney championship, with Los Al winning the Green and OLu taking the gold.
In Thursday’s opener, three Los Al pitchers allowed just one hit each and combined for nine strikeouts in the five-inning game. Tyler Denhart got the win with three innings in the circle, allowing one earned run and two walks while fanning five. Jamie Sellers was 2-for-3 with four RBI. Sam Denehy and Ari Belarde also each had two hits for Los Al.
Against Crescenta Valley, Denhart pitched a one-hitter and got all the support she needed from sophomore catcher Sophia Nugent (three hits) and Sam Denehy (two hits) who each drove in a run.
Against Villa Park, the Griffins offense finally work up, scoring 12 runs against the Spartans. Unfortunately, they gave up nine runs, but they still came away with the win.
Updated tournament results can be found here.
Orange County baseball/softball highlights for Thursday, March 7
Highlights and top performers from the Orange County baseball and softball games on Thursday, March 7. BASEBALL Thursday’s baseball scoreboard Few baseball or softball games were played in still-soggy Orange County on Thursday, but a meeting of Top 25 teams from the Sunset Conference did take place at Newport Harbor.
