Win over Hawks is huge for Titans
| Tuesday, Apr 21 2009 11:02 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Apr 21 2009 11:02 PM
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Megan Sweet tried to tell herself -- and her Frontier softball teammates -- that Centennial was just another opponent, Ensley Gammel just another pitcher and this SWYL showdown just another game.
But afterward, even Sweet allowed that the Titans had reached a milestone with their 2-1, eight-inning victory Tuesday at home against the defending Division I Central Section champions.
"We look at it as another game, but we needed to beat them," said Sweet, who singled home Traci Schnaidt from second base with the game-winning run.
For Frontier (19-7, 4-2 SWYL), the victory really was special. It's a third-year varsity program that had been competitive its first two seasons but had never beaten the league's two powerhouses, Stockdale and Centennial. This year, they've beaten both.
"We're overlooked for this school or that school, and I'm like, 'We're just as good,'" Frontier coach Candice Swan said. "But we're young. Hopefully you get that recognition, but when you're the new school, you don't always."
Frontier trailed Centennial (18-3-1, 4-1) by a run going into the bottom of the seventh but rallied to tie the game.
With one out, the Titans' Tavia Rutherford, who was 2-for-3, singled down the third-base line and raced around to score on Marissa Hinzo's two-out double to left off of Gammel, last year's Californian Player of the Year.
"If you think of her as the best pitcher ever, you're not going to hit her," Sweet said. "You've just got to be think of her as any different pitcher."
Then, after Tayler Ward -- who scattered six hits in eight innings -- set down Centennial in the top of the eighth, Schnaidt singled to start the bottom half, went to second on Brooke Keeter's bunt single and scored when Sweet found a hole on the left side and sent the precocious young Titans into celebration mode.
"I think we can win Valley," Sweet said. "You've got to have confidence. If you don't have confidence, you can't be good."
Frontier's goals are clear, but so are Centennial's. The Golden Hawks still are tied with Stockdale for the league lead and still are favorites in D-I. They got a 2-for-3 day from Gammel, who drove in the game's first run with a sixth-inning single and struck out six.
"We didn't play our best game," Centennial coach Jayna Chapman said. "And when you play good teams, you can't let them stick around. But we have to take this as a positive. We've seen what can happen now, and hopefully it will serve as a wake-up call."
