Falcon Softball Is Simply Perfect

Crowell’s Clutch Hits Propel St. Matthew’s to First League Championship

When Nora Crowell called time out and didn’t get one with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, the stage was set for the most dramatic hit of the season. She took her frustrations out on the next pitched ball and belted it to left centerfield, way over the outfielders heads, for a two-run home run that gave the St. Matthew’s 6-8th grade girls softball team a 5-3 lead over Crossroads in the championship game of the Pacific Basin League playoffs. Aided by key defensive plays from Katie Zacuto at first base and Sara McMahon in right field, St. Matthew’s pitcher Codie Dicus retired the Roadrunners in order in the seventh inning to apply the finishing touches to an undefeated season and the program’s first league championship in school history. ‘When I go up to bat, I usually take the first pitch,’ said Crowell, an eighth-grader and the Falcons’ starting center fielder. ‘The umpire called it a strike, so I stepped out of the box for a second, then put my hand up to let him know I needed time but he didn’t realize it, the pitcher threw the ball and he called it a strike. Now, instead of one strike on me I had two. I was really annoyed so I told myself I was going to hit the next ball no matter what.’ In addition to her game-winning inside-the-park homer, Crowell also hit a lead-off triple to right field in the fifth inning that gave the Falcons hope of a comeback. ‘We were behind 3-1, none of us were hitting and Haley [Greenberg] and I were scared we might lose,’ said eighth-grader Katie Zacuto, who pitched the first four innings, allowing three hits and striking out five batters. ‘But Codie [Dicus] got mad at us. She kept saying we were going to win and finally we did.’ Ironically, Dicus pitched against Zacuto in the championship game last year when Culver City defeated St. Matthew’s 7-6. But Dicus transferred to St. Matthew’s the following semester, giving the Falcons the most formidable pitching combination in the league. Zacuto allowed just 11 hits and struck out 35 batters in 12 regular season games while Dicus had 53 strikeouts and allowed only 12 hits. After Crowell’s triple, Greenberg drew a walk and Zacuto executed a squeeze bunt single to score Crowell and pull St. Matthew’s (14-0) within a run. Dicus laid down another squeeze bunt to score Greenberg and tie the game 3-3. After Dicus retired second-seeded Crossroads in order in the sixth, Rylee Ebsen was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the inning and was on third base with one out.’Fellow seventh-grader Anne Turner bunted, but Crossroads threw Ebsen out at the plate. Crowell, who led the team in batting average (.813), stolen bases (20) and on base percentage (.912), then delivered her game-winning homer. ‘All season long our coach [Brad Zacuto] would point up to the wall and ask ‘Do you see any banners up there?”, said Greenberg, the Falcons’ catcher and short stop. ‘He made it pretty serious. After awhile we were like ‘Yeah, right.’ But he pushed us and in the end it was worth it.’ Greenberg, who will attend Windward School next fall, played in the Pinto and Mustang Divisons of PPBA. She led the team with 18 hits and was third in RBIs (20) this season. ‘Katie, Nora and I are sort of the veterans because we’ve been on the team since we were sixth-graders,’ Greenberg said. ‘We’re pretty good friends because we’re in the same grade. But we have a lot of good players this year. Everyone contributed and that’s why we won.’ Stellar defensive plays were made by Greenberg, who threw out a Crossroads base runner trying to steal, Anne Turner, who threw out a runner at first base from right field, and Audrey Turner, who made a running catch in left field. ‘I was pitching from behind most of the game which I’m not used to,’ said Zacuto, who plays with Crowell on the Del Rey Dragons travel team and will play with Crowell at Marymount High next year. ‘I wasn’t hitting good, but I focused on pitching well enough to keep us in the game. It seemed like they were ahead by more runs than they really were.’ St. Matthew’s defeated Crossroads 10-3 during the regular season, but the final game was much tougher because Crossroads, despite being seeded lower, was playing at home. ‘I was concerned before I hit my triple because their pitcher was throwing a decent game,’ Crowell said. ‘When I hit my home run, I knew she was going to throw a strike and it was right down the middle. They don’t have fences so the ball kept rolling and I kept running.’ The top-seeded Falcons defeated Brentwood 7-5 in the semifinals.’Crowell went three for three and scored two runs, McMahon hit a two-run triple in the first inning and Lizzy Porter added an RBI hit.’Zacuto and Dicus allowed the Eagles only three hits and struck out nine batters over five innings to move the Falcons into the Pacific Basin League championship game for the second consecutive year.