By DICK SPARRER
A win over Prospect helped the Fremont girls' softball team pull out a split in two games last week.
But the split had to be bittersweet for the Firebirds, because the win came in a nonleague game, and the loss came against Cupertino in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
The Lady Birds lost a 3-1 decision to the Pioneers to open the week. Sheila Hess tossed a six-hitter for Fremont, and she shut out the Pioneers through five innings. But Cupertino rallied for three runs in the sixth to pull out the victory.
Fremont had scored a run in the fifth to take the early lead, only to lose it to Cupertino's rally in the sixth.
Hess came right back with a seven-hitter to lift Fremont to a 9-6 win over Prospect in nonleague action later in the week. Hess ran her season pitching record to 5-4 with the victory.
Cortney Canter sparked a 7-hit attack for the Lady Birds with a solo homer, and Sue Leon-Guerro belted a two-run triple.
The clubs slugged it out for three innings before Fremont took command.
The Firebirds rallied for five runs in the top of the first, but Prospect answered with four in the home half of the frame to cut the lead to 5-4.
Fremont rallied for three more in the second and picked up an insurance run in the third. Prospect could counter with just a run in each inning to trail 9-6 after three.
Hess blanked the Panthers the rest of the way to clinch the win for Fremont.
The Homestead girls, meanwhile, opened the De Anza Division season suffering back-to-back losses to St. Francis and Los Gatos.
The Mustangs, who beat Gunn 6-2 in a nonleague game, lost 5-2 to the Lancers to open the league season.
St. Francis scored two runs in the first, two more in the second and one in the third to open up a quick 5-0 lead against the Mustangs. Homestead battled back with two in the fourth, but that was all they could manage in the loss.
The Mustangs slipped to 3-6 for the year when they lost 4-2 to Los Gatos later in the week.
Amanda Sequin tripled to lead a five-hit attack for the Mustangs, but they came up two runs short in the extra-inning loss.
Gatos broke up a scoreless tie with two runs in the fifth, but Homestead battled back to tie it in the seventh and send the game into extra innings.
The Cats picked up two in the top of the eighth and blanked the Mustangs in the bottom of the inning to clinch the win.
Nicole Byroads was stuck with the tough pitching loss.
Homestead will be gunning for its league win this week when the Mustangs hit the road to visit Cupertino on March 26 and host rival Fremont on March 28 in a pair of 4 p.m. games.
In other local girls' softball action, the King's Academy rolled to a 9-5 nonleague win over Valley Christian of Dublin, but lost 12-10 to Menlo. The Knights pushed their record to 5-4 with the split.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 26, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.