Beza Squelches Redondo Union's CIF Softball Run

When Redondo Union softball coach Jennifer Dessert did some checking on California High School, her team's opponent in the first round of the CIF Division 2 playoffs, it wasn't so much the five Condor players hitting better than .300 that got her attention.

It was the pitching.

Senior Ashley Beza had racked up 250 strikeouts in 27 games this season, limited opposing batters to a .155 batting average and had an ERA of just 0.98.

And that combination proved to be too much for the Sea Hawks in a 4-0 loss to California on Thursday in Whittier as Redondo's season came to a rather quiet end.

''I knew that we were going to have to hit tougher against her, or play small ball, which is what we did a lot today,'' Dessert said.

''The girls were very confident that if they could get their bat on the ball, that we would force errors. Their second baseman made an error today, there was another error on the infield, they had an error in the outfield," she said.

Redondo Union had made it to the first round of the playoffs by coming back from a 5-0 deficit to beat Chaffey in a wild card game Tuesday, but could do little against Beza.

The Sea Hawks had just two hits, and when they were able to put runners on base they made errors and failed to execute at the plate.

Beza struck out the first seven batters that she faced, but with one out in the third Jennifer Stevens reached on an error. Jessyca Kamel tried to get down a sacrifice bunt to get Stevens into scoring position with the top of the order coming up, but hit into a fielder's choice. Then in the fourth Cindy Zamudio reached base on an error to open the inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Linda Park. But Zamudio was picked off second base on a very close play, just ahead of a single to center by Alexandra O'Hagen that might have driven in a run.

''We had a couple of breaks. We didn't capitalize,'' Dessert said. ''You know, we had a call out at second. My other pitcher, who was our designated player, Alex O'Hagen, got a nice hit out there. We had runners on, we just couldn't move them over.''

Brett Aspel, the Sea Hawks' starter, kept Redondo in the game the whole way, finding trouble in only a two-run third and a two-run fifth.

But with Beza dealing--she finished with 13 strikeouts--Redondo couldn't generate enough offense to mount a comeback like the one it used to take out Chaffey. The Sea Hawks put runners on base in the fifth and sixth, both times after two were out, and the Condors' right-hander shut down both innings by striking out the next batter.