Camarillo Triumphs on 11th-Hour Heroics

THOUSAND OAKS —  It took 2 1/2 hours, 11 innings and one heroic swing in the final minutes of daylight Tuesday, but the Camarillo High softball team staked an early claim to the Marmonte League title with an exclamation point.

Mandi Comer’s three-run home run in the top of the 11th snapped a tie as Camarillo beat Thousand Oaks, 4-1, in a league opener for both teams at Thousand Oaks Community Park.

For the most part, it was a pitcher’s duel between three of the finest in the area. Camarillo (5-0), top-ranked in the region by The Times, started with senior right-hander Melanie Richardson and finished with Cindy Ball (3-0), who allowed two hits and struck out two in five innings.

Thousand Oaks (4-1), ranked No. 9, countered with Jennifer Sharron (3-1), who had not allowed an earned run in 21 innings before facing Camarillo. After allowing four singles and an earned run in the first five innings, Sharron settled into a groove, retiring 14 in a row from the fifth to 10th innings, seven by strikeout.

But in the 11th, Camarillo’s Jefflyn Spahr reached first on an error to start the inning. Sharron, who allowed six hits and struck out 11, retired the next two batters before surrendering a single to Sarah DeWoody.

With two on and two out and the sun threatening to disappear and take the game with it, Comer knew it was now or never.

Comer had struck out in three of her previous four at-bats and said she didn’t want to four-peat. Comer fouled off five pitches and worked the count full before turning on an inside fastball and ripping a line drive down the left-field line past left fielder Shannon Foster.

“I was just looking for a single to get the runner [on third] in,” Comer said. “I was sick of fouling and I didn’t want the game to go on any longer.”

Comer, a senior third baseman who has hit four home runs in five games, was just about to round third base before Foster ran down the ball.

“She wasn’t seeing the ball the first couple of times,” Camarillo Coach Nichole Victoria said. “[But] she definitely saw that one.”

Camarillo struck first in the third on a run-scoring single by Kortney Edge.

Thousand Oaks tied the score in the sixth, Shelly Teverbaugh scoring on a sacrifice fly to center field by Kristin Combe.

Richardson was perfect through 4 2/3 innings before allowing a hit in both the fifth and sixth.