Panthers get another in the win column

By Stephen Dorman Special to the Acorn

HARD AND FAST-Tiffany Curtis of Newbury Park pitched a complete game last Tuesday in a 6-1 win over Marmonte League-rival Agoura at Borchard Park.

Perhaps the Newbury Park softball team can coax school administrators into implementing a spring break once every other week during the season.

After taking a week off for the annual week off, the Panthers (2-3, 1-1 in the Marmonte) came out firing against Agoura Tuesday afternoon at Borchard Park, handing the Chargers their most lopsided loss of the season, 6-1.

Newbury Park starting pitcher Tiffany Curtis was especially dominant in the victory. In going the distance, Curtis allowed one run on four hits while striking out five and issuing two walks. She improved her overall record to 2-2 with the win and saw her ERA drop to 1.32 on the season.

"It was very pleasing," Panther head coach Darrin Carr said of the win. "Tiffany Curtis did a fantastic job today. We had one of our other starting pitchers go down at the beginning of the year and Tiffany’s had to carry the load. She just hit her spots extremely well today. I was very, very pleased with the way that she pitched."

The Panthers got on the board in the bottom of the first inning when Whitney Born’s RBI-single scored CF Vaiolini Gago. Right fielder Kacey Garziano followed Born with an RBI single that plated SS Danielle Spangler to make the score 2-0 in favor of Newbury Park.

With the game knotted at 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Panther second baseman Kelani Jennings made it to third on a three-base throwing error by Agoura’s Casey Kaufman. It was one of five errors committed on the afternoon by the Chargers. Spangler followed with a run-scoring single to increase Newbury Park’s lead to 3-0.

Later in the inning, Born doubled to the right-centerfield gap and eventually scored on Garziano’s second RBI single of the game.

Agoura replaced starting pitcher Alyssa Neilson, who gave up 10 hits and three earned runs in five innings of work, in the bottom of the sixth inning with Kim Green.

However, their fortunes wouldn’t change as the Panthers tacked on two more runs in the inning on RBI singles by Gago and Spangler that widened the scoring gap to 6-0.

Entering the top of the seventh inning, the Chargers had managed only one hit off Curtis—a first-inning single by Kaufman. But Agoura’s sticks finally woke up in their final at bats. Third baseman Kelly Mead ripped a double into the gap to break the hitless drought. Following a single by Andi Smith, Jamie Pearce’s sacrifice fly scored Mead, but it was a case of too little, too late, as Kelli O’Hara’s flyout ended the game two batters later.

"It was great that everyone came out and hit well today," Curtis said. "Even though you don’t want to give up any runs, it’s nice to go out there and know that you have a little ease and a little weight lifted off your shoulders with the run support."

Born, currently second in the Marmonte with a .533 batting average, said she hopes the team can use the win over Agoura (4-4, 1-2 in league) as a way to build momentum for the remainder of the league schedule.

"We have a lot of great players and we’re really strong," Born said. "But we still have a long ways to go to get where we need to be in order to beat Royal and (Thousand Oaks) and the rest of the big knockers."

Newbury Park played Moorpark yesterday in a make-up game originally scheduled for March 22. The Panthers will travel to Westlake today to take on the Warriors at 3:30. On Saturday and Sunday, the Panthers take part in the Daily News Tournament.

Game times haven’t been announced for the tournament.