With its victory over league rival Corona Santiago in CIF Southern Section Div. I title game, Norco beats the Sharks for third time this season and all but clinches the state's No. 2 overall rating behind San Jose Mitty, which will be made official  when final state rankings are released later next week. Softball section championship game subplot sees Norco's Teagan Gerhart wins rubber match of pitching showdown with close friend Kamerin May.

By Ronnie Flores, Senior Editor

Irvine, Calif. -- The titanic pitching match up between Norco's Teagan Gerhart and Santiago's Kamerin May stole all the story lines when Big VIII League rivals Norco and Santiago of Corona met in the CIF Southern Section Div. I title game.

The showdown had subplots only found in a Hollywood script: best friends on rival teams that not only have been the two most dominant pitchers in the Inland Empire over the past four seasons, but split wins in the previous eight meetings of their storied prep careers.

The reality of the situation, however, was that Gerhart and company were the better team, as Norco turned its timely outs, and some gift runs allowed by Santiago, into a 5-1 victory at Barber Park's Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine.

It was the Cougars' third victory over their league rivals this season and a turnaround from last season when Santiago won all three games. Win the win, Norco secured the program's second CIF Southern Section title. The first under head coach Rick Robinson came in 2003 over Whittier California in Div. II.

"It was just a matter of time," Robinson remarked about his team capitalizing on its many numerous opportunities throughout the game. "We had a great group of seniors. We had just a great team camaraderie. Our players didn't care about who was the star and didn't care who was the one that got the job done. When we needed outs, we got them."

Gerhart definitely got the job done, as she allowed seven scattered hits, did not walk a batter and struck out eight in seven innings pitched. She allowed only one harmless run, on a single by Santiago's Jackie Sweet that scored outfielder Chez Caro, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and only after catcher Kelsey Gerhart and her pitching sister muffed what would have been the game's final out in foul territory just left of the batter's box. Nothing much else went wrong for Teagan Gerhart, who won the rubber match with her friendly rival from Santiago to finish her prep career with a 81-12 record and 904 career strikeouts.

May did an admirable job in the circle, but her teammates behind her were unable to get outs in the most critical situations. She allowed a season-high ten hits, walked five and of her five runs allowed, only two were earned. The San Diego State recruit finished her prep career with a Riverside County record 98 wins, and 1,233 strikeouts, against 19 losses. Six of those losses came against Norco, and of course, five at the hands of Teagan Gerhart.

May let the leadoff batter reach base in the first two innings, but Norco (31-2, 13-1 in the Big VIII) stranded a runner in each frame.

In the third inning, Santiago's ace retired the leadoff hitter, but the Cougars were in business after leadoff batter Kelli Frye singled and outfielder Nicole Sappingfield singled to make it first and third. In between, Kelsey Gerhart sacrificed Frye over, but she didn't attempt to score on Sappingfield's hit that Santiago second baseman Katie Muscente was able to keep in the infield. That turned out to be a huge defensive play by Muscente, as freshman Emily Lockman weakly grounded out with the bases loaded after Santiago coach John Perez elected to intentionally walk Teagan Gerhart.

While Teagan Gerhart didn't allow her first hit until the bottom of the fourth inning, May wasn't nearly as dominant. Although she did make some big pitches in crucial situations, May allowed four of the first five leadoff hitters to reach base.

The top-seeded Cougars, which came into the game ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 3 in the ESPN RISE FAB 50, again loaded the bases in the fourth inning, but the veteran May was able to pitch out of the jam. In a bold coaching move, Perez elected to intentionally walk Frye to pitch to Kelsey Gerhart with the bases loaded. The strategy paid off when she hit a soft pop up to the first baseman.

Norco stranded three runners in the fourth, the second consecutive inning May allowed the bases loaded, and stranded eight overall through four. Santiago (27-5,11-3 in the Big VIII) twice dodged bullets, but May's tight rope act finally caught up with the Sharks in the fifth inning.

Sappingfield started things off with an infield single and Teagan Gerhart followed with a single of her own to make it first and third with zero outs. Lockman, a freshman, then slapped one towards second base that took a bad hop on Santiago's Katie Muscente. Lockman's infield single scored Sappingfield and Gerhart scored on a blooper hit over third base by Jordan Emanuele. A wild pitch by May then scored Lockman and Emanuele then scored on an error by catcher Kristin May on a play at the plate after a flip to her sister Kamerin May was slightly off-target.

Norco added an insurance run in the sixth inning on an error by shortstop Sweet that allowed Sappingfield to score. It was May's third, and final, unearned run allowed in the game.

As a freshman, May was the winning pitcher in the 2006 Div. I title game victory over Pacifica of Garden Grove, but this night clearly belonged to her best friend from Norco.

"If I talk to her (in the next few days) I will tell her that she played an awesome game," a jubilant Teagan Gerhart said afterwards. "There's nothing much else to say other than we came out on top. She's (May) an awesome girl and I'll always be her friend."

"We dodged bullets all night," remarked Perez, whose club came into the game ranked No. 5 in the state and No. 9 in the FAB 50 ratings. The loss was a first for Perez in a section title game after victories in 1998, 2004 and 2006.

On this night, however, Robinson's club again proved what its 2-1 and 5-3 regular season victories meant.

"I thought we were going to win," Perez said. "But they (Norco) were the better team."