Advancement in Arms Race

VAN NUYS — For six months, Anna Russell couldn’t pick up a softball.

“It was very frustrating,” said Harvard-Westlake High’s sophomore right-hander, who sat out the off-season with tendinitis in her pitching arm.

These days, there are few questions regarding Russell’s arm strength.

Russell threw a four-hitter and drove in the tying run Thursday in what would become a 3-2 victory over Mission League rival Alemany in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division IV playoffs at Valley College.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Russell (14-11) said after striking out eight to help the Wolverines (17-12) advance to the semifinals for the first time.

They will face fourth-seeded Corona Santiago on Tuesday at an alternate site.

Until this season, Harvard-Westlake had never won a softball playoff game, one of many historical hurdles the Wolverines cleared during an extraordinary school year at the Studio City campus--the Wolverines captured Southern Section titles in girls’ volleyball and girls’ basketball.

The softball team rallied from a slow start to finish second in the Mission League, then defeated Fillmore, 7-2, in the first round for its first playoff victory since Harvard and Westlake highs merged during the 1991-92 school year.

The Wolverines followed with a stunning 7-0 rout of top-seeded La Reina in the second round.

“I’d have to say it’s been a very satisfying year,” said Terry Elledge, Harvard-Westlake’s coach and girls’ athletic director.

The Wolverines moved a step closer to another section final by overcoming a 2-1 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Russell’s line single to center with two out in the inning drove in Becca Goldfarb with the tying run.

Shortstop Sandra Aken followed with a single to right-center, scoring Kim Koral with the game-winner.

It was an all-too familiar and painful end for Alemany (18-11), which was attempting to reach a semifinal for the first time since 1981.

In the 17 seasons since, the Indians are 0-7 in the quarterfinals.

But they weren’t supposed to make it this far in 1998.

Long Beach State-bound pitcher Kim Diener was sidelined with tendinitis midway through league play and Alemany sputtered, losing five consecutive games, as well as its eight-year grip on the Mission League title.

“Considering everything they’ve been through, I think the girls can be very proud of what they’ve accomplished,” Alemany Coach Dudley Rooney said.

Alemany sophomore Sarita Contreraz (4-4) took over for Diener and won her last four decisions, including playoff victories over Lompoc and La Canada.

Against the Wolverines, Contreraz was staked to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, when catcher Meghann Reiss hit a two-run triple down the left-field line.

Aken answered with a run-scoring triple in the bottom of the first, but was thrown out attempting to stretch it into her team-leading sixth home run.

Aken was the first of three Wolverine runners out at the plate.