Royal’s 3-1 Win Turns Marmonte Softball Race Into a Dogfight

John Tabakman was driving from his garage about three weeks ago when his daughter’s dog ran out and tore down the street. The Royal High assistant softball coach ignored the runaway pooch and continued on his way to work.

“I didn’t like the dog, anyway, so I let it go,” he said.

His daughter, Wendy, who plays for Newbury Park, didn’t agree with his sense of priorities and dedicated her softball game that day to her departed dog. It proved to be a good motivational ploy. She hit a two-run, game-winning single to lead Newbury Park. The hit came against Royal.

“I was really up for it,” she said. “The whole game, I was out there screaming, ‘Do it for my dog! Do it for my dog!’ ”

John Tabakman claims he was hounded about the game for a long time.

“I heard about it for about 10 days,” he said.

Now, after Royal’s nine-inning, 3-1 victory over Newbury Park Thursday at Borchard Park in Newbury Park, Wendy may spend the next few days listening to her father gloat.

“Nah, I wouldn’t do that,” John Tabakman said. “I’m going to try to be an adult about this thing.”

The victory puts Royal and Newbury Park in a dogfight for first place going into the final game of the Marmonte League season.

The Highlanders improved to 17-8 overall and 9-2 in league, one game behind the first-place Panthers (18-5 and 10-1). The loss snapped Newbury Park’s six-game win streak.

Newbury Park already has clinched at least a share of the league title, its fourth straight and seventh in the last eight years. To clinch the outright Marmonte championship, the Panthers must wait until Tuesday, when they finish their league schedule at Simi Valley. Royal plays at home Tuesday against Westlake. A Newbury Park win or a Highlander loss would give the Panthers sole possession of the championship.

“We’re counting on beating Simi,” Newbury Park Coach Dick Intlekofer said. “But it would have been nice to do it today and not have to put it off for Simi.”

Highlander Coach Jane Forrester knows that pulling off a tie for the Marmonte championship is a long shot, but that isn’t exactly her goal, anyway.

“We’re looking to go to the playoffs as a second-place team,” she said. “We didn’t want to go as a third-place team and have to play some other league’s first-place team away. We couldn’t be happier where we are right now.”

Royal’s Colleen Walker and Newbury Park’s Delores Decker both pitched shutouts through eight innings, but the Highlanders broke the game open with three runs in the top of the ninth.

ROYAL--Walker and Cress.

NEWBURY PARK--Decker and Schultz.

WP--Walker (5-1); LP--Decker (9-3).