Alex Howard, Crescenta Valley-Foothill bound for Western Regional Tournament in Arizona

A successful Melissa Euyoque squeeze bunt cut the lead to 4-3 and Sarah Robinson (two for four) knotted the score for the second time in the game with a soft line drive to left field. CVFH relief pitcher Adela Alatraca, who gave up five hits, three runs, a walk and struck out one over three innings, stopped the bleeding when she induced two pop outs to end the frame.

"[Bad memories] started creeping in, but the adrenaline was flowing," Thayer said. "I felt like we could do this, like we had it. We had the meat of the order coming up [in the bottom of the seventh] so I knew it."

Fabian, who finished two for four on the day, quickly put things back in order for CVFH when she lined the first pitch she saw off the left-field foul line and hustled all the way around to second base.

"I just cleared my head and did anything to get on base like my coach said," Fabian said. "I was thinking double the entire time because I knew I could make it, I am pretty fast."

Howard rewarded the effort when she hit a hard ground ball in the hole between shortstop and third base. The Westchester shortstop made a great diving stop but the ball hit off her and onto the shallow left-field grass and Thayer waved Fabian home for the winning run.

"It feels really good because last year [Westchester] knocked us out in two games so it was really nice to come back and win it," Fabian said.

It ended a wild ride for both teams. Westchester took the first lead of the game without even a hit in the top of the second, as two consecutive CVFH errors scored Westchester's Amber Kahn, who reached on a fielder's choice and moved to second on an error.

Kahn scored when Campos hit a chopping grounder to shortstop, which wasn't handled cleanly. Kahn was initially caught in a pickle going home after the shortstop fired a throw to the catcher to catch Kahn in no-man's land, but the catcher's throw back to third was off target, which allowed Kahn to score the first run of the game.

CVFH's offense uncharacteristically struggled early on, as it was retired in order in the first and second innings. Tiffany Bartamian got CVFH back on track when she led off the bottom of the third with a home run to left-center off a 3-2 fastball.

"I fouled off the one before that and I knew I was going to get on the next one," Bartamian said. "I didn't think it was going to go out until I rounded first base and saw it go out. It felt great to get us started."

Thayer said Bartamian's blast helped calm all the nerves for CVFH.