Cerritos Beats Woodbridge, Robitaille, 2-1

It took Cerritos four looks at Woodbridge’s Christy Robitaille before it was able to defeat the Warriors, 2-1, Tuesday in the Division II Southern Section softball semifinals at Long Beach City College.

Robitaille and the Warriors had defeated the Dons three times in the last two years. Last season, the Warriors eliminated Cerritos in the semifinals, 4-0.

Fourth-seeded Cerritos (25-5) took its revenge this time, knocking the top-seeded Warriors out of the finals for the first time in four years.

In the bottom of seventh inning, Sara Winters sent a ball bouncing between second and third, scoring Jaime O’Neal from second.

“We picked a good time to beat her,” Cerritos Coach Kim Denhart said. “We stayed with it and we finally got to her.”

Robitaille (20-4), one of five senior starters on the defending champion Warriors, faced only 14 batters in the first four innings before getting into trouble.

Trailing 1-0, Cerritos’ Renee Cardenas led off the fifth with a single to right field. Robitaille struck out the next batter, then O’Neal laid down a bunt directly in front of home plate. Third baseman Kristy Clarke rushed the ball, but bobbled it, allowing O’Neal to reach on the error with Cardenas moving to second. Robitaille intentionally walked leadoff batter Brandi Stuart, loading the bases with one out for Julie Hoshazaki, who singled in Cardenas to tie the score at 1-1.

“Their bunts were excellent,” Woodbridge Coach Alan Dugard said. “Against us, that’s how you win. We think we have the best team around and unfortunately, we didn’t win today.”

Woodbridge had numerous chances to blow open the game, stranding nine runners. They took the lead in the top of the first when Nichole Thompson, who reached on a fielder’s choice, scored off an Erica Greenberg RBI double.

In the second inning, Woodbridge had runners on second and third with no outs, but failed to score. And in the sixth Woodbridge loaded the bases, but Tracy Alcaraz struck out to end the inning.

“That really hurt,” Dugard said. “But that’s softball. Sometimes you leave them loaded. We had them on the ropes in the first inning and we should have scored in the second. We had too many chances that we squandered.”