LJ softball: Notebook

Coach Andrea Denham, on her perch

where she transmits pitch calls

to catcher Hailey Ramos.

(Photos by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

"I've been working their butts off," said La Jolla assistant coach Tracy Brown about the Viking softball team. "I leave hurting. They leave pretty well done."

Brown told his team after a hard-fought, well-played 3-2 CIF win Thurs., May 18, over remote Mission Vista, "Give yourselves a hand...I have one problem: LLOB."

Team members all asked, "What's that?"

Brown: "Ladies Left on Base."

Josie Sinkeldam scored two of the victorious Vikings' three runs, in the fourth and fifth innings. Kyra Ferenczy drove her in both times. Third baseman Linda Brown had the third RBI, knocking in Ferenczy after her hit in the top of the fourth.

Left fielder Ava Verbrugghen, playing smart baseball with no experience outside of her school's team, had a sacrifice bunt in the fourth, a groundout in the following inning. Both moved Sinkeldam, La Jolla's leadoff hitter, ahead a base before scoring.

Brown discussed the late push by his team that has moved the Vikings into an enviable position in the playoffs after a nightmare start to the season. After losing its first six games, La Jolla is playing good softball and moving into the second round of the Division 4 playoffs at Mar Vista Sat., May 20.

"Uh-huh," Coach Brown, Linda's father, acknowledged when asked if the team is playing well. Then his report about working them hard in practice.

Who would have thought the Viking players would be high-fiving off the field, with a jump in their step, after beating a first-round playoff opponent, like they did in solid fashion against the T-wolves--especially in view of their horrendous start back in March?

The team had basically the same players, less some role players, yet they started out with more than a stumble. They couldn't win, period. Vanessa Shaffer, spectacular fielding outfielder, and Kyra Ferenczy, the Vikings' pitcher and a hitter who impressed the elder Brown with her bat as a freshman last year, missed some early games with their involvement on the La Jolla CIF title-winning squad.

Ferenczy came in a little off the mark, having not thrown a softball in seven or more months.

In the Highlander Classic at Helix, the Vikings got pounded by a talented and ready Helix host team, then almost against belief called in to cancel their last two games in the tournament because a few players were going to be out of town.

This year's team, despite the same core as last year's that went to the Division 4 playoff title game, is shy a few subs. Sara Tyrus, who is holding down second base with a confidence built over the last four years, hadn't planned to play her senior year.

Linda Brown, at the hot corner, hurt her throwing arm during a game early in the season and has been nursing it ever since. "About 80 percent," she said after Thursday's win at Mission Vista of the present condition of her valuable extremity. It hasn't affected her average at the plate, though she only has three home runs this season.