Tolfa on fire, leads CdM to easy victory

CORONA DEL MAR — Catcher Katrina Gaar best explained how tough Corona del Mar High ace Michelle Tolfa threw Thursday.

“She was pitching strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, strike,” Gaar said, trying to match the number of strikeouts Tolfa recorded.

Gaar was five short as Tolfa struck out 11 and allowed two hits and no earned runs in the Sea Kings’ 5-1 nonleague win against visiting San Marino.

The Princeton-bound senior attacked a depleted lineup to give Corona del Mar (1-1) its first victory.

Tolfa (1-1) was so dominant against San Marino (6-2) that one batter twice tried to avoid her by trotting back to the dugout after the second strike was called.

The umpire summoned the player back to the plate each time. And Tolfa quickly sent her back to the bench each time as she whiffed on the next pitch.

The Titans were already handicapped as San Marino Coach Mitch Dimkich said four of his players were out due to having to attend a school play Thursday. Nine players made the 47-mile trip.

“I noticed,” Tolfa said, “but it doesn’t affect my play at all.”

Tolfa, the two-time Newport-Mesa Player of the Year, threw a pitching clinic against San Marino.

In a hitter’s park with the left- and right-field fences 192 feet away from home plate and center 195 feet away, hitters still found themselves at a disadvantage against the right-hander.

Out of the 26 hitters Tolfa faced, 18 of them received a strike on the first pitch. San Marino, which entered the game on a four-game winning steak, struggled touching Tolfa’s fastball and screwball. Eight times hitters went down swinging.

Only once did a fly ball reach the outfield, and it cost the Sea Kings in the first inning. An error near the line in left field put the runner at second, then third on a passed ball, and then a wild pitch brought the runner home to give San Marino a 1-0 lead.

But Tolfa regrouped and fanned five of the next eight batters she faced, a sign to the opposing pitcher that it was going to be difficult to hit Tolfa.

“She was good, better than anything else we’ve faced so far,” said Corinne Meyerson, who in six innings struck out 10, gave up four hits and walked four. “That was hard [playing without our regular starters] because there are some girls who haven’t had to deal with some situations, so they weren’t sure what to do.”

Gaar knew what she needed to do for the Sea Kings, and that was to get on base as the leadoff hitter and create havoc on the bases.

She did her job by going two for three, stealing bases twice and scoring twice. In the first, she singled to center field and moved to second on Allie Duernberger’s sacrifice bunt. Two pitches later, Gaar stole third.

With Tolfa at the plate, she came around and scored to tie the game, 1-1. Not on a hit, but on Meyerson’s first of two wild pitches in the game.

“Usually once I get on, it gets everybody pumped,” Gaar said.

She did that again by leading off the third with a walk. Duernberger got on next, and the player responsible for bringing both home was the one handcuffing the Titans on the mound.

Tolfa took an outside pitch the other way down the right-field line for a two-RBI triple that put Corona del Mar up, 3-1. A big enough lead for Tolfa to cruise the rest of the way, because she knew she was on her way to giving first-year head coach Laura Mayberry her first victory.

“It wasn’t a hard game,” she said after throwing 99 pitches (69 strikes). “Getting ahead is really important. So when that happened, I can take control of the batter.”

NonleagueCorona del Mar 5,

San Marino 1

Score by Innings

San Marino 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 2 3

CdM 1 0 3 0 1 0 x - 5 4 2

Meyerson and Shelburne; Tolfa and Gaar. W -- Tolfa, 1-1. L -- Meyerson. 2B -- Kaczmarek (CdM). 3B -- Tolfa.