Pocock Lifts Mater Dei to Tournament Title

Kristen Pocock of third-ranked Santa Ana Mater Dei continued her assault on opposing pitchers, and Saturday at the Thousand Oaks tournament she took aim at Mindy Cowles.

The result was a 5-2 victory over 15th-ranked Riverside Poly, the tournament title and a most-valuable-player award for Pocock, a junior catcher batting .432. She had two hits and a run batted in against Cowles.

Mater Dei (23-3-2) seized control in the first inning, scoring three runs.

“Mindy ran out of gas about the sixth inning of the Rosary game,” said Riverside Poly Coach Eddie Jones, whose Bears (19-5) beat No. 12 Fullerton Rosary, 3-2, in a semifinal earlier in the day.

Britni Rodriguez (11-2) pitched a three-hitter for Mater Dei.

In its semifinal, Mater Dei defeated Newhall Hart, 5-1, on a four-hitter by Briana Santos (9-1).

In the third-place game, Rosary defeated Hart, 9-3, as the Royals scored four runs in the third inning.

Martin Henderson

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Boys’ Tennis

Thousand Oaks sophomore Sam Querrey, who probably would have been the top-seeded player in the Southern Section individual tournament this month, will not play in the event after missing qualifying competition in the Marmonte League championships.

Querrey attracted attention last month when he won the boys’ 16 division at the U.S. Tennis Assn. Easter Bowl/Super National Championships and followed up with a victory in the CIF boys’ singles division of the Ojai Valley tournament April 24.

He is participating in a national junior tournament this weekend in Las Vegas, however, and missed the Marmonte League tournament, which ended Friday.

Another top player, Corona del Mar junior Carsten Ball, also will miss the Southern Section individual tournament as a result of his anticipated absence from the Pacific Coast League tournament because of a junior tournament.

Pacific Coast League competition takes place Monday-Wednesday at Mission Viejo Tesoro.

Elia Powers

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Baseball

Even though Jack Rye is one of the top players in the Southland, he almost made it through his high school career without creating much of a buzz.

But Rye, a senior outfielder-pitcher for Irvine Woodbridge, made his presence known Friday against Santa Ana Foothill in a Sea View League game, driving in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the fourth inning to help the Warriors to a 4-3 upset of the first-place Knights (20-4, 10-3).

It marked the first loss this season for Foothill ace Phil Hughes and moved Woodbridge (11-12-1, 7-6 in league) into a tie for third with Newport Harbor (13-10, 7-6) with two games left next week against the Sailors.

Rye, who improved his batting average to .434 with two hits Friday, signed with Florida State in November.

Dan Arritt

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Aljay Davis scored the winning run on a bases-loaded walk to Chris Cordova that capped a six-run, seventh-inning rally as Lakewood, ranked sixth in the Southland by The Times, escaped with an 8-7 victory over Long Beach Millikan in the championship game of the Redondo tournament.