Burdick delivers Barons a 1-0 victory

Mike Sciacca, Independent

Colleen Burdick delivered a Fountain Valley High a key Sunset

League softball victory Thursday, but it was pitching ace Natalie King

who keyed the Barons’ 1-0 triumph over host Marina.

Burdick came up with a one-out RBI single to right field in the top of

the seventh inning, scoring Inez Vasquez from third base with what turned

out to be the winning run.

Although it was just the second league game for both teams, the

implications of the outcome carried a lot of weight.

Both coaches knew it, too.

“This was a big game, no doubt, but it’s the first of many to come in

league play,” Fountain Valley Coach Cary Baker said. “This is a big, big

win for us, not only in the standings, but because it came on their

(Marina’s) home field.”

The contest figured to be a showdown between a pair of standout pitchers,

and it didn’t disappoint.

Fountain Valley’s right-handed senior, Natalie King, time and again felt

the heat from Marina but, time and again, managed to escape the wrath of

the Vikings.

King, in improving to 11-3 overall, struck out 14 and allowed just three

hits.

She came into the ballgame with 154 strikeouts, second best in the

county.

King’s counterpart, Marina’s Steffany Stenglein, was equally impressive,

striking out 12 to go along with four hits and a walk.

The loss was the first of the season for the right-hander, who fell to

8-1.

“I really feel sorry for Steffy, because I thought she pitched a great

game,” Marina Coach Shelly Luth said. “I thought she was in control all

game, but our offense just couldn’t give her the lead. That’s a shame,

because we wasted a great pitching effort.”

Marina (11-2, 1-1) threatened to put King in the hole in the first three

innings, but King came up with some magician-like work to escape

unscathed each time.

The Vikings had their best chance to score first in the bottom of the

third inning, when lead-off hitter Bree Boyer drew a walk, and Heather

Saltarelli laid down a bunt single. On the bunt, Fountain Valley third

baseman Tiffani Miller overthrew first base, sending Boyer to third base.

With nobody out, King preceded to strikeout Stenglein, Marina’s clean-up

hitter, Tina Klingzing, and Sara Pagano, to get out of the jam.

King faced similar situations in both the first and second innings and

each time, came up with the same solution.

In the Vikings’ first at-bat, Hagan was hit by a pitch and Boyer drew a

walk on four consecutive balls to put runners on base. Saltarelli

successfully bunted the runners to second and third base, but King fanned

Stenglein, then got Klinging on a full-count fastball.

King also was in the hole in the second inning when Marina’s Nelsie

Zaragoza reached base on an infield error and Cara Congelliere beat out

an infield grounder with one out. But with runners at first and second,

King struck out No. 9 hitter Brooke Crouche, then took care of the top of

the Marina order when she got Hagen on a 2-2 fastball.

“It’s really frustrating when you waste (scoring) opportunities such as

those, and you need to score early on a pitcher the caliber of King,”

Luth said. “We just couldn’t put the ball in play when we needed to. We

tried to squeeze (Stenglein was unsuccessful in the third inning) and

hit-and-run, but nothing worked. We couldn’t manufacture anything. She

(King) did a real nice job of moving the ball around and keeping us

guessing.”

Baker agreed.

“If it wasn’t for Natalie, we wouldn’t be leaving here with a 1-0 win,”

he said. “She was fantastic, finding her way out of those first three

innings. “I thought we had a terrible beginning, but we just kept

swinging away. Colleen (Burdick) had the big hit, but it was Natalie who

got the job done.”