Saugus Gets Obscured by Forest Smoke

VALENCIA — Pitcher Nicole Giordano said she and her Saugus High teammates had too much time to think about Tuesday’s Southern Section Division II semifinal softball game against Righetti.

They heard too many stories about Warrior pitcher Jocelyn Forest, who was built up as the second coming of Michele Granger.

Before Forest struck out 14 batters and took a perfect game into the seventh inning, before Allisa Cortez doubled home two runs in the third inning of a 2-1 Righetti victory at the William S. Hart Baseball/Softball Complex, Saugus was beaten.

“Everybody was telling us how many strikeouts she had, and a lot of our team came out scared today,” Giordano said.

The stories filtered through the Santa Clarita Valley after the second-seeded Warriors beat Hart, 3-1, in Newhall last week.

Forest, a junior whose 33-2 record mirrors that of her team, has 497 strikeouts in 258 innings this season. She is 12 short of tying Granger’s section record of 509 set in 1987.

Forest struck out the first nine Saugus batters but saw her bid for a perfect game end in the seventh, when Giordano singled off the glove of third baseman Sabrina Early.

Giordano later scored on Shannon McRoy’s one-out, ground single to center field.

By then it was too late, said Giordano, a senior who led Saugus (25-6) to the Division II title last year.

“I let it be all mental,” said Giordano, who struck out in her first two at-bats and was bothered by an umpire’s call during Righetti’s rally in the third.

“I let [Forest] get to me,” she said. “I let the umpiring get to me. Our confidence dropped. I think we could have won this game.”

Giordano (25-6) retired six of the first seven batters, the only hit being the first of two doubles to left-center field by Cortez.

But Juliane Tesoro opened the Righetti third with a single to right, barely beating right fielder Julie Watson’s throw to first. Giordano didn’t like the call and Saugus Coach Ron Hilton argued.

Tesoro moved to second on Hilli Pyland’s sacrifice bunt. Keola Calderon then singled between Giordano’s legs. Tesoro held at third and Calderon moved to second on Kelly Cornelison’s throw to the plate.

Up came Cortez, who again swung at the first pitch--a curveball that didn’t break--lining it to the gap and driving in Tesoro and Calderon.

“I wanted a perfect game; it was definitely important to me,” said Forest, who has five no-hitters, 13 one-hitters but no perfect games. “But I would sacrifice that for a win.”

Righetti will play Woodbridge in the final.