Palos Verdes Ace Fires No-Hitter Against RUHS Girls Softball Team

When the Redondo Union High School girls softball team traveled to Palos Verdes on Wednesday, they knew that winning would not be easy. They didn't know that Arianna Erceg would be nearly perfect in a 4-0 win for the Sea Kings.

Erceg, the 2009 Bay League most valuable player, was at her dominating best, throwing a no-hitter and walking just one batter.

"Today just felt great. We really wanted this game, Redondo has a good team and we were able to come out and play the way we wanted," Erceg said.

Redondo was looking to tie Palos Verdes atop the league standings with a win, but their hopes were dashed from the beginning, as Erceg exerted her dominance early. Jillian Mattor, Cindy Zamudio and Linda Park were retired on strikes in the first inning, as Erceg combined a lively fastball with her off-speed pitches.

In the bottom of the first, the Sea Kings got on the board with back-to-back solo home runs from Andrea Del Conte and Haley Schenasi.

Erceg struck out two more batters to start the second inning and had 10 in all during her first no-hitter of the season.

"She's great. She mixed her pitches and just was able to make it difficult on us and compound things from the very start," Park said. 

Erceg helped her cause in the fourth inning as she hit a home run over the short Palos Verdes fence in center field.  The Sea Kings would tack on another run in the fourth, bringing the score to 4-0.

Redondo pitcher Alexandra O'Hagan went four innings for the Sea Hawks, giving up three home runs and the four runs.  Brett Aspel finished the game with three scoreless innings for Redondo.

"Alex's pitches were moving well, two of those home runs would not have gone over a lot of fences, but their hitters were hitting and we weren't," Redondo coach Jennifer Dessert said.

With two outs in the fifth, Jessyca Kamel worked a full count and drew a walk on a close pitch, ending Erceg's bid for a perfect game.

Erceg struck out two in the sixth, and with the no-hit effort in sight began the seventh with a first pitch groundout from the bat of Zamudio. Erceg then threw three straight balls to Park, before retiring her on a ground out.  Erceg finished the game when O'Hagan was caught looking on strikes.

"Caitlin [Brown] did a great job behind the plate, Andrea and Haley came up big in the first with their home runs and that always helps when you have some runs to work with," said Erceg, who is 10-5 with an ERA of 0.97.

The Sea Kings are now 6-1 in Bay League play and have a two-game lead over Redondo, West Torrance and Mira Costa as they look to win back-to-back titles.

Redondo fell to 4-3 in league and 8-15 overall. 

"We had great momentum after the Mira Costa game, we need to reach within and get that energy we were playing with back," Dessert said. "These girls know they can play good teams tougher than they did today, we are fighting for everything and these last three games will be very important."