Miraleste Ace Fires No-Hitter at Rosemead

Miraleste junior Jennifer Van Wie pitched a no-hitter and struck out 11 Thursday to lead the Marauder softball team over visiting Rosemead, 10-0, in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section 2-A playoffs.

Van Wie (17-3), who has given up only two hits in her last three games, struck out the first eight Rosemead batters as Miraleste built a 9-0 lead through three innings.

She helped herself at the plate with two hits. Kathleen Esphorst, daughter of Coach Eric Esphorst, paced the Marauders with three hits and Kimi Karmelich added two, including a two-run triple.

Leading 2-0 after two innings, Miraleste (17-4) blew the game open with seven runs in the third.

The Camino Real League champions will play fourth-seeded Santa Fe (13-2), a 6-1 playoff winner over Norte Vista, in the second round Tuesday. The home team will be determined by a coin flip.

Rosemead, the third-place team from the Mission Valley League, ended the season at 10-9.

El Rancho 12, El Segundo 7--Lack of experience over the regular season might be easy to mask, but in the playoffs it can become a glaring weakness. El Segundo, which has only one senior, discovered that in the first round of the CIF 2-A playoffs at Recreation Park.

“We had a lot of mistakes and just weren’t able to make the plays,” said El Segundo Coach Howard Williams. “We came well prepared, but this was just a pressure-packed game.”

El Segundo (16-8) broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the second inning, but that’s when things took a turn for the worse.

El Rancho of Pico Rivera, the third-place team from the Whitmont League, scored a run in the third, six in the fourth, three in the fifth and one in the seventh to build a 12-3 lead after the Eagles scored in the fourth.

The Eagles, who finished second in the Camino Real League, didn’t exactly roll over and die in the seventh.

They scored four runs and forced El Rancho to make a pitching change before an out had been recorded. But El Rancho then got three quick outs to end the threat and the Eagles’ season.

Nikki Zinni led El Segundo with four hits, Deana Telfair had a single and a double, Christy Hunt had a two-run single and Kerri Doyle added an RBI.