{"id":7097,"date":"2010-06-04T23:12:19","date_gmt":"2010-06-05T06:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=7097"},"modified":"2010-06-04T23:51:51","modified_gmt":"2010-06-05T06:51:51","slug":"lancers-hoist-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=7097","title":{"rendered":"Lancers Hoist Title"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

La Salle celebrates it's second title in four years. Photo by Hoang Nguyen<\/p><\/div>\n

(Irvine) \u2013 Last year, La Salle was close enough to touch to the title only to throw away a chance at victory.\u00a0 This year with a coming-out party for freshman Katie Smither they hold the Division VI Championship that was within their grasp in 2009 with a 6-0 win over defending Champion Marymount.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey never stopped believing in each other,\u201d said La Salle head coach Rich Diaz.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the team left La Salle High School they were focused on the bus and when the girls got to the stadium. \u00a0They played with lots of heart and it showed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lancers pitcher Allie Forillo dazzled for a complete game three-hitter, which saw her strike-out nine Sailors.\u00a0 It was a fitting end to storied career at La Salle for Forillo who finished this season 23-3 and a microscopic 0.53 ERA with 357 strike-outs.<\/p>\n

As one star shines brightly one last time, another emerged in Smither whose maturity at the plate began the Lancer onslaught to the title.\u00a0 Smither finished the game three for three and a triple shy of the cycle to lead La Salle\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Katie Smither's homer put the icing on the championship cake. Photo by Hoang Nguyen<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAfter my first hit,\u201d said Smither.\u00a0 \u201cI came up with confidence in my next at bat.\u00a0 I was telling myself that I can hit her.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Smither who chipped away at the armor of Marymount pitcher Hayley Schultz with a blast that nearly went over the left-center field wall.\u00a0 She would score from second on perfectly placed bunt single from Meaghan Allen that got past Gina Rogari at first base.<\/p>\n

With the Lancers already ahead 2-0, the flood gates began to open for the offense as Tori Baltazar smashed a single to right field. Sterling Shuster then placed a 2-2 offering into the right center-field gap to double in Baltazar.\u00a0 Forillo would hit a sharp single up the middle moving Shuster to third and continuing the inning.\u00a0 Samantha Krost would sacrifice in Shuster to give La Salle a 4-0 lead before Smither\u2019s homerun over the right-center field fenced iced the victory for the Lancers.<\/p>\n

La Salle\u2019s nemesis last season was Megan Blank who drew three walks and stole three bases last season in leading the Sailors to the Championship.\u00a0 This year, Forillo worked her inside and struck her out to set the tone of their battles.\u00a0 When the game was over, Blank managed a one for three day and was caught trying to stretch a single into a double.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, we tried to pitch to Blank outside and she got her hands out,\u201d said Forillo. \u201cI pitched her inside so she couldn\u2019t get her bat extended.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Forillo was masterful in her 23rd win of the season. Photo by Hoang Nguyen<\/p><\/div>\n

Forillo closed out the game by inducing three ground balls to end the game. The last out fittingly dribbled to her and she threw to first to get Meagan Rafferty out.<\/p>\n

It is the second softball title in four years for the Lancers who will be moving on up to Division III next season.<\/p>\n

LA SALLE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1<\/p>\n

MARYMOUNT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a04<\/p>\n

WP: Allie Forillo (23-3)<\/p>\n

LP:\u00a0 Hayley Schultz (18-3)<\/p>\n

HR:\u00a0 Katie Smither<\/p>\n

2B:\u00a0 Smither, Sterling Shuster,<\/p>\n

RBIS:\u00a0 Smither 2, Shuster, Allen, Worley, Krost<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Irvine) \u2013 Last year, La Salle was close enough to touch to the title only to throw away a chance at victory.\u00a0 This year with a coming-out party for freshman Katie Smither they hold the Division VI Championship that was within their grasp in 2009 with a 6-0 win over defending Champion Marymount.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[58,3129,3127,3128,3104,2329,3130],"class_list":["post-7097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-allie-forillo","tag-hayley-schultz","tag-katie-smither","tag-meaghan-allen","tag-megan-blank","tag-sterling-shuster","tag-tori-baltazar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7097"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7100,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097\/revisions\/7100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}