T.O. and Royal won’t share title this season

By Kyle Jorrey jorrey@theacorn.com

ROYAL TREATMENT-Highlander senior Jen Troncali smacks the ball during her team's 4-1 victory over Thousand Oaks on Tuesday.

Any hopes of the Lancers snatching a piece of the Marmonte League title from the red hot Royal Highlanders were dashed Tuesday as T.O. fell to the visitors from Simi Valley, 4-1, in the team’s second-to-last game of the league season.

After winding up as co-champions with the Lancers two out of the last three seasons, the Highlanders were dead set on achieving sole superiority.

"This game was big for us because we didn’t want to have to share the title again," Royal head coach Bill Dishon said. "This year we really wanted it for ourselves."

The loss dropped T.O. to 9-4 in league, one game behind Newbury Park (16-7, 10-3) and two games behind Royal (23-2, 12-1), which has now won nine straight. The Lancers are still assured a spot in the Southern Section playoffs.

Thousand Oaks has a chance to jump back ahead of the Panthers when the two teams meet on the diamond tomorrow at 6 p.m. at NPHS. They complete the regular season with a matchup against Westlake in the championship game of the Hart Tournament.

"We really wanted to beat (Royal) today, but just because we didn’t doesn’t mean anyone is losing confidence," senior shortstop Genna Allen said afterward. "We still feel if we keep pulling together as a team we can do well in the playoffs."

After rebounding from a loss to Agoura by beating three consecutive league opponents (Westlake, Simi Valley and Calabasas), the Lancers looked a bit out of sync when they took the field against Royal. The Highlanders responded early, scoring all four of their runs in the first three innings, only three of which were earned. A couple fielding errors by the T.O. defense allowed Royal to take advantage of the free passes issued by Lancer starter Suzanne Cominski, who like her RHS counterpart faced a miniscule and often inconsistent strike zone.

"The little things really hurt us today," T.O. head coach Gary Walin said. "We gave away too many runs and you just can’t do that against a good bal club. We just weren’t sharp."

Cominski, who is still recovering from severely sprained ankle she suffered early in the season, pitched admirably, allowing just four hits and one earned run in five innings of work. Replacement pitcher Brittany Reynolds, came in after the fifth and allowed just two base runners.

Walin said he hopes his ace senior pitcher will continue to get better for the playoffs, but admits she probably won’t be 100 percent healed until after the season is over. Freshman Samantha Takeshita is also nursing a sore finger.

"(Suzanne) is really trying to tough it out, but I don’t think she’ll be completely better until she gets four to six weeks of rest in the off season," Walin said of the graduating senior who is heading to Harvard.

Just as they did against Agoura two weeks earlier, the Lancers struggled to produce at the plate against Royal’s hard-throwing junior Jessi Waers.

Waers had a no-hitter through five innings until T.O. outfielder Erin McMorrow came through with a single. Thousand Oaks didn’t get on the board until catcher Marla Mathews sixth-inning double scored Kelly Cordiero.

Allen said the team has gotten into the habit of not coming alive at the plate until they’ve fallen behind a couple runs.

"For some reason this team just hits better when the pressure is on us," Allen said. "We’ve got to start pumping up some runs in the first few innings."