Foothill Scores in 7th to Oust Mater Dei, 1-0

ANAHEIM — The unheralded sophomore outdueled the heralded one Tuesday, and the player Mater Dei feared most finally got a pitch to hit.

Lauren Bauer singled with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and pinch-runner Jennie Lockhart scored as the throw home bounced away from the catcher to give top-seeded Foothill a 1-0 victory in a Southern Section Division I semifinal softball game over No. 4 Mater Dei.

The victory at Canyon High puts Foothill (29-2) into Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. title game at Lakewood’s Mayfair Park against third-seeded Upland. Mater Dei, the defending champion, is 28-6.

“The feeling of beating a team like this instead of a so-so team makes the victory so much better,” said Bauer, who had been intentionally walked twice leading up to her seventh-inning showdown with Marissa Young (10-3), last year’s player of the year.

Cheri Nierman and Eryn Manahan singled to open the seventh, and with two outs and Lockhart at second base for Nierman, Young wasn’t supposed to give Bauer anything good to hit. She failed.

Mater Dei Coach Doug Myers debated walking Bauer for a third time, “but you don’t want to put the winning run 60 feet away. I’d rather get the ball somewhat close to the strike zone.”

Shealee Dunavan’s one-hop throw would have had Lockhart easily, but it bounced off Sabrina Smith’s chest for the last of four Monarch errors.

It made a winner of Lauren Schwendimann (14-1), who got out of a bases-loaded no-out jam in the sixth inning by striking out Young (26 RBIs) and getting Courtney Ryan (18 RBIs) to line into a double play.