Banning Has Its Victory Gift-Wrapped : Softball: Four errors lead to Granada Hills’ demise as Pilots win in 4-A semifinals, 6-1.

Before the City Section 4-A Division softball semifinal on Wednesday, Granada Hills pitcher Brandy Brennan had to dig a hole in the center of the field just big enough for her toes.

By the time the game was over, the Highlanders had dug a hole big enough to swallow the whole team.

Granada Hills made four errors--including three in a four-run seventh inning--and lost, 6-1, to Banning at Hjelte Sports Center in Encino.

“We let the ball play us,” Brennan said.

The game started 45 minutes late because of a controversy over the pitching rubber. As Brennan completed her warm-ups, she wondered aloud if the rubber was a little too far from home plate.

Out came a tape measure, only to reveal the rubber was 46 feet from the plate--six feet farther than regulation for high school softball--because the field is normally used for men’s slow-pitch softball.

After a search for another rubber that could be placed on the field, the pitchers agreed to dig a small hole in which they could place their feet to push off.

Brennan (11-3) said the delay might have contributed to the Highlander loss. Of course, Banning’s hitters didn’t help Granada Hills (15-5) either. After Brennan retired the first 12 Pilots, Banning collected four hits in the fifth and took a 2-0 lead.

“I was hitting my corners,” Brennan said. “All the pitches were working. They are just a good hitting team.”

Banning Coach Kathy Blankenship said: “It just took us a while to get the timing. We knew we had to be patient.”

The key hit in the inning was a run-scoring single by Michelle Chavira, who drove the ball into the hole vacated by shortstop Brede Nivens, who went to cover third base because the runner had broken from second. Chavira squared to bunt on the play, drawing in the third baseman, before swinging away.

“We set ourselves up with errors,” Granada Hills Coach Carolyn Gunny said.

Granada Hills had failed to execute offensively as well up to that point, getting its leadoff batter on in three of the first four innings without scoring.

The Highlanders broke through in the sixth on Brennan’s two-out, run-scoring single that made it 2-1.

But Banning (15-5) put the game away in the seventh. The inning began with Jessica Shapiro dropping a fly ball. A run scored on a throwing error and two more came home on Kisha Torrence’s single, which was misplayed by Tiffany Lanier.

Banning’s Ompa McKenna (15-4) gave up a hit and another batter reached base on an error in the bottom of the seventh, but she finished the game with her fifth strikeout. Brennan struck out six and did not walk a batter. She was also the only Highlander with two hits.

Banning will play San Pedro in the championship game on Wednesday.