Foothill’s Depth Keys Victory Over El Modena

Foothill sophomore Elizabeth Bendig began her catching career with the start of this high school season and admits she prefers pitching to catching.

Now, unfortunately, she may pitch a lot.

Bendig replaced injured Courtney Fossatti in the second inning Thursday and finished off El Modena, 5-0, with a two-hitter in a Century League game that will likely give Foothill its ninth consecutive league softball title.

The Knights, ranked No. 1 in Orange County, are 23-3, 6-0 in league with four games to play. El Modena (14-9, 4-2), the primary competition, now has two loses.

Fossatti (15-1) went down with an apparent sprained left ankle in the first inning. Kathleen Galbreath’s backhand of Fossatti’s bouncer up the middle forced Fossatti to stride longer to beat Galbreath’s throw from second base; Fossatti beat the throw, but fell.

Coincidentally, Fossatti’s hit came against El Modena’s Erin Norton (7-3), who missed a month of pitching with a severely sprained ankle.

Foothill players responded after Fossatti’s injury. Jaime Clark doubled down the right-field line, and Kristen Mann’s single scored Clark and pinch runner Rachel Kitchens for only the second and third earned runs of the season against Norton, who allowed eight hits and struck out three.

“They don’t seem to be fazed by adversity,” Foothill Coach Joe Gonzalez said of his team, which had three previous injuries: outfielder Autumn Champion (wrist), pitcher Lauren Schwendimann (shoulder), and second baseman Eryn Manahan (knee). Schwendimann still has not returned.

Foothill added three runs in the sixth, including another earned run, as Clark singled and Tiffany Haas, Mobley and Sarah Boardman had RBIs.

“They have a good defense, good offense, good speed, desire,” said Norton, a second-team Times All-Orange County pitcher last season. “[But] we didn’t do our part [after Fossatti’s injury]. We didn’t hit the ball. We should have taken advantage of it, but didn’t.”

Bendig, the starting catcher, gave up an infield single to her first batter, Andrea Pastiglione, and a single to Norton leading off the seventh. But in six innings, Bendig faced the minimum 18 batters , striking out seven and walking none.

Amber Dragomir, with a leaping catch in left field in the top of the first inning, robbed Norton of extra bases and possibly a 2-0 lead. Fossatti struck out the next two batters. Then, it was Bendig’s turn.

In other Century League games:

Canyon 4, Orange 3--Rebekah Anderson had four hits and an RBI, and Chrystal Hewitt scored twice as Canyon (13-11, 2-3) sent Orange (8-10, 4-3) to its eighth one-run loss.

Villa Park 1, Santa Ana Valley 0--Alyson Hannigan pitched a one-hitter for host Villa Park (10-12-1, 1-5).