Charles Rich
Darkness fell on the La Canada High softball team's season.
For the third consecutive year, it ended in the quarterfinal
round, and without the benefit of scoring a run.
La Canada surrendered three fourth-inning runs Thursday en route
to a 4-0 loss to host Goleta Dos Pueblos in a CIF Southern Section
Division IV contest. Dos Pueblos (25-6) will make its inaugural trip
to the semifinal, and will face Westlake Village Oaks Christian
(30-2), a 2-1 winner against Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, on Tuesday.
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BOX SCORE
*--*
*--*
La Canada 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 2 4
Dos Pueblos 0 0 0 3 1 0 x -- 4 4 0
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La Canada IP H R ER BB K
Mellin 6 4 4 3 4 3
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*--*
Dos Pueblos IP H R ER BB K
Haake 7 2 0 0 2 8
*--*
*--*
WP-- Haake (20-3)
LP-- Mellin (16-6)
2B: DP-Haake
3B: DP-Kolegraff
HR: DP-Wong (4)
*--*
*--*
YEAR OPPONENT PITCHER FINAL H
2003 Dos Pueblos C. Haake L, 4-0 2
2002 Northwood A. Lewis L, 1-0 0
2001 Diamond Ranch L. Fennel L, 2-0 0
1999 Chaminade M. LeCocq L, 1-0 1
1997 El Segundo T. Ruitso L, 6-1 4
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La Canada starting pitcher Danielle Mellin (16-6) yielded a
three-run home run to white-hot Kimi Wong in the fourth inning,
giving the Chargers a 3-0 lead. Wong, who hit two home runs Tuesday
in 14-0 win against City of Industry Workman, lined the first pitch
over the right center-field fence.
"I'm a low-ball pitcher," said Mellin, who struck out three and
scattered four hits in a complete-game effort. "The umpire didn't
give me the low pitches, and it's obviously frustrating."
Mellin, who finished the season with a team-best 163 strikeouts in
140 innings, had matched Dos Pueblos pitcher Christina Haake (20-3)
through the first three innings.
Haake had a no-hitter entering the seventh, until Ciri Bryan and
Lana Sanfilippo recorded back-to-back singles for the Spartans
(19-6), but that was all they could get in the inning.
La Canada, which won its fifth straight Rio Hondo League title
this season, had been no-hit in the 2001 quarterfinal by Pomona
Diamond Ranch and by Irvine Northwood last year.
The Spartans have advanced to the quarterfinals five of the past
seven seasons, but they've managed just seven hits in those games,
including getting outscored, 14-1.
"Both pitchers [were great]," La Canada Coach Brock Turner said.
"But they had more opportunities after they [started the fourth] by
getting on an error and a walk. It's so tough to come back from a 3-0
deficit.
"One game doesn't make a season, and there are a lot of teams that
don't get this far."
Dos Pueblos, which finished second in the Channel League behind
Ventura Buena, made it 4-0 in the fifth on a double by Haake.
The University of San Diego-bound Haake recorded her 10th shutout
this season, and is hitting better than .400.
"La Canada has a very good team," Dos Pueblos Coach Joel Garbarino
said. "They should be proud.
"We just got that big hit at the right time. With softball, the
games are usually close and you know that the pitching will be good."
Bryan, a junior third baseman, finished the season with 39 hits to
post a team-high .542 batting average.
She had at least one hit in 22 of La Canada's 25 games.
Mellin finished the campaign with an earned-run average of 0.65,
and posted a three-year record of 24-9 and a 0.62 ERA.
