Pacifica Rises to Claim Foothill Title

To win the Foothill softball tournament on Saturday, 10th-ranked Garden Grove Pacifica beat the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in The Times’ rankings in the same day.

Freshman Brittany Weil pitched a one-hitter in the championship game, knocking off No. 1 Santa Ana Mater Dei, 1-0, a few hours after her team strung together four hits in the sixth inning to beat No. 2 Santa Ana Foothill, 2-0.

“I was a little nervous,� said Weil (14-0), the tournament’s most valuable player who scattered six hits against Foothill (21-3).

With the victories, Pacifica (19-2-1) can lay claim to No. 1.

“We knew how good we were, but we were a little skeptical about our pitching,� said Pacifica Coach Rob Weil, Brittany’s father. “Brittany has been coming through, and everyone else has contributed to make this thing work.�

It worked in the third inning against Mater Dei (18-3), when Amy Mayrhofer drew a one-out walk, took second on Jessica Marical’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Mallorie Lenn’s single.

Against Foothill--which took third with a 1-0 victory over No. 8 Whittier California--Pacifica’s Linda Reyes doubled in the sixth inning, and the Mariners added three singles in a row, getting runs batted in from Mayrhofer and Marical. In the bottom of the sixth, Weil got out of a bases-loaded jam with a strikeout.

Martin Henderson

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In baseball:

Arcadia 4, Crescenta Valley 3--Blake Lloyd had the winning hit in the 12th inning late Friday to lead the Apaches (16-2, 7-1) to a Pacific League victory over the Falcons (16-2, 7-1). Trevor Bell (5-1) took the loss for the Falcons.