Crescenta Valley-Foothill Junior Section 2 debut a victorious one

CANYON COUNTRY — On a torridly windy Saturday afternoon at the Canyon Country Little League complex, the Crescenta Valley-Foothill Junior All-Stars softball team made its debut and promptly blew past District 40's Canyon Country-Mission Hills in the opening round of the Section 2 Tournament, 8-0.

Bolstered by a standout performance in the circle and at the plate from Jordan Lousararian, CVFH used patience at the plate to grab an early lead, stellar pitching to maintain it and contagious hitting later in the game to make it a blowout — taking advantage of seven wild pitches, three stolen bases and two passed balls along the way.

"After we started getting more and more hits, we started getting more and more confident," said CVFH's Camie Ellingford, who had a run batted in, a run and two of her team's nine hits, "and we knew we were gonna win."

CVFH will now meet District 51 Quartz Hill, a 7-4 winner over District 17 San Marino earlier Saturday, at 9 a.m. Sunday in the winner's bracket, with a berth in Tuesday's championship final on the line.

Lousararian tossed four shutout innings before giving way to Adela Alatraca, who finished out the game with three innings of one-hit scoreless ball, allowing one hit and striking out two while retiring the final seven District 40 players of the game.

"Our two pitchers were really hitting their spots," CVFH Coach Will Thayer said. "Jordan and Adela really came through."

Lousararian allowed just one hit — which didn't come until the bottom of the fourth on a slow infield bouncer that went roughly six feet — through four innings, struck out four, walked one and never allowed a runner past second base. At the plate, the No. 3 hitter was three for four with two RBI and two runs.

"Jordan had a great game on both sides of the ball," Thayer said.

Lousararian settled in nicely from the start thanks to two key moments ignited by Sammy Fabian.

Fabian led off the game by working an 11-pitch walk in the top of the first, as she fell behind in the count, 0-2, before fouling off countless pitches and finally drawing the base on balls.

"It wasn't easy," Thayer said. "She was down in the count early, but she fouled off a bunch of pitches and was able to come back."

It was also a foreshadowing of CVFH fortune, as the District 16 representatives walked seven times in all.