LJ softball 12, Coronado 3

The ever-present mascots Pancho

(on top) and George hang with

Ava Verbrugghen.

(Photos by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Senior Linda Brown clubbed a pair of two-run home runs and had four RBI's to lead a 19-hit attack in La Jolla's 12-3 win over Coronado Thurs., May 25, to earn a berth in the CIF Division 4 finals Saturday for the second year in a row.

Catcher Hailey Ramos got into the act with four straight hits, driving in two runs on a ground-rule double in the top of the third inning that bounced over the plastic net fence in left-center field at the Poway Sportsplex.

Ramos, a sophomore hitting .307, made a fine defensive play to keep the Islanders from scoring in the bottom of the third. With one out and Coronado's Maya Wisotzki on third base, Trudie Nixon hit a groundball to Vikings shortstop Josie Sinkeldam. Sinkeldam immediately threw home. Ramos positioned herself up the line toward third, blocking Wisotzki's path to the plate as she took the throw and made the tag on her upper body.

La Jolla pitcher Kyra Ferenczy took advantage of the play to hold Coronado scoreless until the sixth inning, when the outcome of the semifinal game was pretty much decided with Coach Andrea Denham's team leading by then by nine runs.

The sophomore hurler, who in club ball plays one of the corner outfield spots, also added three base knocks and three RBI's, hitting in the third slot.

Said Brown before the game, playing in the last CIF playoffs of her four-year high school career, "I'm pretty excited. I'm confident. We've been playing well. We've been on our 'A' game the last five games."

Something got under her craw, though: "Teams come in here and don't think we can beat them, because of our bad start."

Linda Brown takes swings with Josie Sinkeldam (L)

during warm-ups.

 



Before going out and stinging the ball for five hits off Coronado starter Trudie Nixon, who lasted four innings, and reliever Emma Casamassima, who pitched the last three, Brown admitted that after the season is over, "I'll probably be sobbing," because, "This is my family."

Sinkeldam, in her customary leadoff spot, reached base four times and hit a two-RBI triple to the fence in centerfield in the second that started off the Vikings' scoring against Nixon.

Said a reflective Brown as she swapped places practicing swings with the shortstop before the game, "I've known Josie since I was 12."

Ferenczy limited Coronado, which was the top seed in the playoffs, to no more than one hit in every inning through the fifth. The Islanders finally put together three hits in the sixth to score their first two runs.

"You want to be champions," assistant coach Tracy Brown told the team before the game, "you got to take it. They aren't going to give it to you."

This is the second year in a row the elder Brown has helped take the squad to the finals. Last year Denham was JV coach. Anthony Sarain, who was in attendance, was the head coach last year, his seventh and final one with the Vikes.