Fossatti Falters, Foothill Falls in Tournament

An uncharacteristic walk by pitcher Courtney Fossatti, and the only hit of the game by Fresno Bullard gave Bullard a 1-0 victory over Foothill in a battle between the state’s top-ranked teams.

Fossatti (12-2) was the losing pitcher despite giving up only one hit to No. 1 Bullard (26-1) in the championship game of the Santa Maria Best of the West tournament. She had walked only six batters this season going into the tournament, but walked three and hit a batter.

Her final walk was the one that hurt most.

Fossatti walked the No. 9 batter, Cori Haw, leading off the sixth inning. Haw took second base when Fossatti was called for an illegal pitch, the only one called against her. Haw took third base on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on Andrea Yocum’s fly ball double to left center field against a drawn-in outfield.

Foothill had four hits against Marissa Marzan, who struck out four. The Knights had runners in scoring position twice, once more than Bullard, in the third and sixth innings.

Though Jiliane Hartfiel was hit by Marzan, and Autumn Champion singled with two outs in the third inning, Foothill came closest to scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Champion led off with a single, took second on Elizabeth Bendig’s bunt and third on Fossatti’s grounder.

Kristen Mann then hit a shot to third base that was smothered by Jen Soliz, who threw out Mann at first base.

Foothill, ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 1 in Orange County, is 20-2.

In Century League boys’ golf:

Villa Park 194, Orange 225--Senior Todd Saukkola medaled with a par 36 for Villa Park (9-4, 6-1) on the Chino Creek course at El Prado.

In the Garden Grove League:

Rancho Alamitos 213, Garden Grove 223--Sean Keys and David Wong were medalists for Rancho Alamitos (9-3, 7-3). They both shot 39 at Willowick.

In Century League boys’ swimming:

No. 6 Villa Park 123, Orange 46--Jared Jones won the 100-yard butterfly in 58.38, as well as the 100-yard backstroke in 58.73, for Villa Park (7-3, 4-0).

In Century League girls’ swimming:

No. 8 Canyon 103, El Modena 70--The Mathewson sisters, Lauren (200 individual medley, 100 backstroke) and Courtney (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle), each won two events, as did Erin Volcan (100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke) for Canyon (7-1, 4-1). El Modena is 2-3 in the Century League.

Villa Park 136, Orange 34--Angela Samuels was the only double winner for Villa Park (6-4, 3-1), capturing the 100 butterfly in a time of 1:05.04 and the 500 freestyle in 5:38.74.

In Garden Grove League boys’ volleyball:

Garden Grove 3, La Quinta 0--Robert Rubalcaba made 13 kills, Eduardo Rodriguez had 10 and setter Jose Negrete made 44 assists to lead Garden Grove (11-1, 7-1), which won 15-7, 15-12, 15-10.

Pacifica 3, Santiago 0--Josh Shearer made 12 kills to lead Pacifica (7-2, 7-1), which won 15-11, 15-9, 15-3. Santiago kill leaders were Jose Rivera with 11 and Junior Paaga with 10.