Southern Section 4-A Softball Playoffs : Barons Are Flattened by St. Paul, 1-0

Everything had been going pretty well in the Southern Section 4-A softball playoffs for Fountain Valley High School. Until Tuesday.

That was when the Barons made the mistake of stepping in front of a steamroller by the name of Keri Kropke.

Kropke, St. Paul’s starting pitcher, rolled over 23 of 24 batters she faced on the way to a 1-0, eight-inning victory in a semifinal game at Heritage Park in Cerritos.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, St. Paul’s Michelle Moreno singled off Fountain Valley pitcher Rae Rice to drive in Mary Lucas for the game’s only run. Lucas, a junior who started the season on the junior-varsity team, had three of the seven hits allowed by Rice.

But the star of the game was Kropke (20-3), a junior right-hander, who silenced the Fountain Valley bats. The Barons had come alive in the playoffs, scoring 25 runs on 30 hits after a regular season of low-scoring games.

Kropke pitched a perfect game for seven innings before giving up her only hit--a single to shallow center field--to Fountain Valley third baseman Sammi Sawyer in the eighth. Kropke struck out 10.

It was the second year in a row that St. Paul has knocked Fountain Valley, seeded third in the 4-A pairings, out of the playoffs. Last year, St. Paul, with Kropke pitching, beat the Barons, 1-0, in the first round.

“She was good last year,” Cary Baker, Fountain Valley coach, said. “But, no, not like this. She didn’t throw as hard.”

Kropke tossed a perfect game in a first-round game against Torrance. Her next outing for unseeded St. Paul was a no-hitter over Hart, and in last Thursday’s quarterfinals she threw a 22-inning shutout against second-seeded Righetti.

Kropke’s performance Tuesday brought an end to an outstanding freshman season for Rice (19-6), who had given up four hits and one run in each of her three previous playoff appearances. Against St. Paul, Rice struck out three and escaped two early jams before giving up the winning run.

In the fifth, Rice gave up three consecutive singles to load the bases with one out. But an outstanding double play by freshman catcher Shannon Dolan saved the inning. Dolan grabbed Roseanna Sanchez’s bunt, touched the ball to the plate for a force out, then threw to first to get the final out.

In the sixth, Tyree Kaululaau singled, took second on an error, then advanced to third on a fielder’s choice. But Kropke, who was being intentionally walked by Fountain Valley, got her bat on the ball and popped to third base. Rice got the next batter to ground out.

Fountain Valley, which has reached the playoffs four of the last five years, loses only two starters from this year’s team to graduation.

“Going into this year, I didn’t anticipate that we’d be in the semifinals,” Baker said. “I knew we had talent but I didn’t know it would come together so well.”

Fountain Valley finishes the season 24-7-1.

St. Paul, which finished second in the Angelus League, will play Buena in Saturday’s 4-A championship game at Mayfair Park. Buena defeated St. Joseph, 1-0, in Tuesday’s other semifinal.