"Becky Louber was downright dominant from the pitching rubber, as the left-hander allowed only six Indians batters to put the ball in play. She surrendered three hits, walked one and hit one batter, but all of the hits were on balls that weren't hit well. Her fastball was too fast for the Indians and her changeup too tricky and slow.

It was one of those changeups that makes batters look absolutely silly, although Becky Louber's fastball didn't make the Indians look too good either."

May 16, 2007
By LEE GORDON-Special to the E-R

The Champion Christian softball squad entered Tuesday's tussle with Happy Camp having outscored opponents 272-77 this season on the way to a 22-2 record, so it was quite a shock when the game entered the bottom of the sixth with a scant 1-0 Mustangs advantage. But pitcher Becky Louber made the Champion faithful forget all about the anemic offensive effort with a whopping 17 strikeouts, and the Mustangs created just enough offense to win 4-0 in the first round of the Northern Section Division VI playoffs at Rex Murphy Field. The win extends Champion's string of victories to 14.

It wasn't pretty on the offensive end, said coach Dennis Louber, but it's amazing what 17 strikeouts on the pitching end can do for a team struggling to make things happen on the basepaths. The only offensive star for Champion was Kayla Mansfield, who knocked in the first two runs of the game with consecutive RBI singles.

"If you went and asked our girls to a person, down the line why they couldn't hit, they would just shake their heads. We just weren't that selective," he said. "I was really surprised we didn't hit the ball better but we got a good pitching performance from Becky, so we'll just take the 'W' and move on."

The North Valley League champs and top seed in the bracket will indeed move on, hosting league foe and No. 4 seed Hayfork (15-6) on Thursday in the semifinals. The Timberjacks beat Mansfield 6-1 in the first game of a doubleheader earlier this season but fell in the nightcap to Becky Louber, 5-2.

Becky Louber was downright dominant from the pitching rubber, as the left-hander allowed only six Indians batters to put the ball in play. She surrendered three hits, walked one and hit one batter, but all of the hits were on balls that weren't hit well. Her fastball was too fast for the Indians and her changeup too tricky and slow.

It was one of those changeups that makes batters look absolutely silly, although Becky Louber's fastball didn't make the Indians look too good either.

"It has really been way more developed toward the end of the season," Becky Louber said of her changeup, with a smirk on her face. "It's really come up big."

Happy Camp hurler Cassidy Hammon was hardly impressive or overpowering — or deceptive for that matter — but she held the Champion offense in check long enough to give her team a chance to win, as she went six innings, allowing seven hits and four walks to complement four runs. That chance was thwarted in the bottom of the sixth when Champion finally took advantage of opportunities and busted the game wide open with three runs. And like she was on the rubber, Becky Louber was a thorn in the Indians' side at the plate late in the game.

With a mighty grunt, she obliterated Hammon's offering to the opposite-field gap and collected a hard-earned triple. Mansfield and Becky Louber had a case of deja vu next when the junior third baseman singled up the middle to knock in a run, just like what happened in the third inning. Mansfield scored during Karlee Burns' at-bat after Happy Camp's shortstop threw over the first baseman's head trying to get the freshman at first. A triple from Natalie Crippa down the third-base line plated Burns and sealed the fate of the Indians, who traveled more than four hours one-way to get to the game.

Mansfield said after the game that Hammon's stuff wasn't outstanding, but her windup was unique and the team had seen a lot of power pitchers recently. Why the offense struggled was beyond Becky Louber, but she said she is pretty excited about the bats getting back on track.

"We came today, and we played, but I know we didn't bring everything we've got and I know that there's so much more we can bring," she said. "I can't wait to see what these girls are gonna do when they bring everything — it's gonna be fun."

Coach Louber, Becky's father, said he wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of facing a league opponent in the playoffs, saying he prefers the mystery of playing a team like Happy Camp, one that was not on the regular season schedule. But when you have a pitcher who is capable of striking out 17, 12 of the first 14 batters and eight of them looking, it's hard to imagine fearing any team.

"The teams that bother me are the teams that we played during the year that have hung around," he said. "I don't like the idea of them coming back here with the idea that they can play with us."