South slams way to 10-1 win in All-Star softball game
It assuredly didn't quite have the same feeling when it left the bat - or the same championship implications - but it was a grand slam just the same.
Three days after her grand slam won the CIF-SS Division 3 championship game, Ayala High School outfielder Mary Massei hit another one to put away Monday's 10-1 victory for the South team in the seventh annual Inland Valley High School All-Star softball game.
The difference in the home run that awarded Ayala the first CIF championship in school history on Friday and the one that put the All-Star game out of reach was more than a few feet. Massei's hit never left Big League Dreams Park Monday night but the speedy Ayala senior raced around the bases in the sixth inning to give the South team a commanding nine-run lead.
After zero grand slams in the first six years of the Inland Valley High School All-Star softball game, there were two Monday night. Chino's Lauren Ackerson hit a conventional grand slam - over the left-field fence - in the fourth inning to give the South a 5-1 lead.
"When I was trying to put a lineup together before the game, I realized I don't know all these girls that well," said Ontario's Bob Vasquez, coach of the South team. "But no matter who you put out there, you can't go wrong."
Apparently, Vasquez couldn't go wrong offensively or defensively.
The South pitching trio of Ayala's Jessica Hall, Pomona Catholic's Tori Sadlak and Ontario's Vivian Young scattered three hits, allowing just one run in the fourth inning.
Before Ackerson broke open the game, UCLA-bound Hall, who started and pitched three perfect innings for the South, and Etiwanda's Natalee Pulver, who allowed one run on four hits for the North, kept the scoring to a minimum before each exited after three innings.
The South struck first when Ontario catcher Melanie Vasquez doubled and scored in the second inning. The North tied the score in the fourth when Etiwanda outfielder Tera Vaughn doubled and scored on a wild pitch, but things went South from there.
"Hall can throw it by you and we had some other pitchers who could do other things to mix it up," Vasquez said. "And you saw a bunch of double plays. The defense was great all night."
To begin the tide-turning fourth inning, sandwiched between singles by Hall and Sadlak, Ontario pitcher Vivian Young struck out but reached first on a ball in the dirt prior to Ackerson's grand slam.
The South added to its lead in the fifth on an RBI triple by Kaiser third baseman Priscilla Martinez that scored Ayala's Amy Ricciardi from second after she doubled.
About Clay
Clay Fowler has been covering high school sports for six years in California and Texas. He was born in Dallas, attended the University of Texas and worked in Central Texas before joining the Daily Bulletin staff in 2006.
Email Clay here
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