Panthers Try to Find Consistency at Woodbridge Classic

Palos Verdes Peninsula High’s softball team was able to produce some offense in its Bronze Bracket game at the Woodbridge Victory Classic Tournament on Monday. However, the Tesoro Titans produced more as the Titans handed the Panthers an 11-4 loss in the bracket quarterfinals at Bill Barber Park in Irvine.

The Panthers tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the second inning, but the Titans broke the game open in the bottom of the second with a two-out rally for five runs highlighted by two home runs. For the Panthers, the game was disappointing because of the missed opportunities to match the Titans’ offense.

The Panthers had a two-out rally of their own in the bottom of the fourth when senior shortstop Taylor Karp, senior third baseman Allison Blackman and senior first baseman Hope Jenkins strung together three consecutive singles. But a fly ball to deep center field ended the inning with the bases loaded and ended the Panthers’ last chance to make it a close game.

“We had a lot more base runners today, we were just a big hit away,” Panther coach Tim Hall said.

Hall said the Panthers struggled in their first two games of the tournament simply to get runners in scoring position, so the disappointment Monday was buffered somewhat by the encouragement of at least getting batters on base.

The Panthers opened the game in the top of the first inning with a single by leadoff hitter, freshman pitcher Cassie Lajeunesse. One out later, Karp was hit by a pitch to put two runners on base. After a fielder’s choice for the second out, Jenkins hit a fly ball to shallow center field and turned it into an RBI-double when the ball dropped in the open field.

Sophomore outfielder Camille Zuliani followed with a hard line drive down the left field line, but it was caught by the third baseman. In the second inning, the Panthers added another run after junior outfielder Ashley Gonzalez got a one-out single. Freshman second baseman Kristyne Hong reached on a bunt down the line that was bobbled by the third baseman and was followed by a walk from Lajeunesse to load the bases.

Sophomore pitcher Andie Siegel would bring in Gonzalez with a ground-out to second base and a fly ball to right followed to end the inning. Jenkins would walk in the third inning and eventually score on an RBI single by Gonzalez for the Panthers’ third run and Hong lined a home run down the left field line for a solo home run in the fifth inning for the final Panther run.

Peninsula dropped two games in pool play on Saturday, 9-1, to El Modena and 5-2 to Temescal Canyon, to go into the Bronze Bracket. They will finish the tournament Saturday with an 8 a.m. game against Villa Park and then a 5 p.m. game against either Elsinore or Brea Olinda.