Sports
SOFTBALL: Gunn Makes Statement
Titans ace leads way in early season El Camino showdown between undefeated teams.
Gunn 6, Milpitas 1
The Star: During a matchup of two undefeated teams in Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division play, one player stood above the rest.
Gunn High-Palo Alto softball starting pitcher Claire Klausner simply dominated from start to finish. The sophomore starter pitched seven strong innings, striking out 12 hitters in the circle and blasted two home runs at the plate. A force in all avenues of play, Klausner helped lead Gunn to a convincing 6-1 victory over Milpitas High (7-8, 4-1 El Camino) on Wednesday afternoon in Milpitas.
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The rise ball was the primary weapon for Klausner, but everything in her repertoire was on point during the win. Using a steady fastball, a tough changeup and an occasional curve to go along with the deadly out pitch, the Titans ace stifled the previous undefeated Trojans.
Klausner homered in the fifth and sixth innings, driving in three of the six Gunn runs on the day.
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The Turning Point: From the opening at-bat of the game, the potent Gunn (11-6, 5-0 El Camino) offense hit the ball hard. Klausner tripled to deep left to lead off the game, but was tagged out two batters later trying to score off a ground ball to the right side of the infield.
Gunn took a 1-0 lead off a solo homerun from Casey Maltz in the fourth inning, breaking up the scoreless tie. Still a pitchers dual through four innings of play, the Titans broke things wide open in the fifth. Klausner drilled her first blast of the day with one away to extend the lead to two. Junior Laura Kidder followed with a walk and a steal before senior Nicole Grimwood unloaded a monster shot into the left-center field gap. The moon shot scored both runners to double the lead to 4-0. Gunn would score once more in the frame, putting four tallies on the board in the pivotal top half of the fifth.
The Quotes: “I’m kind of a rise ball pitcher,” Gunn starting pitcher Claire Klausner said about her success in the circle against Milpitas. “It’s been my strikeout pitch all year.
The sophomore star was encouraged right from the start about the way her team was swinging the bats at the plate.
“From the start we went making solid contact,” Klausner said. “We were going to score runs eventually.”
The Titans head coach has high hopes for this team.
“Our kids are pretty solid offensively and defensively,” Gunn head coach Stephanie Swinford said after the win. “The goal is to go undefeated in league and to make deep run in the playoffs.”
Swinford also spoke highly of her ace sophomore and her deadly rise ball.
“That’s her primary pitch,” Swinford said. “It’s just a tough pitch to hit. It moves up a couple feet and gets faster as it goes.”
What's Next? Gunn will play at Monta Vista High-Cupertino on Friday, looking to add another league victory before the 12-day hiatus from game action for Spring Break.
Bottom Line: Minus only one senior from last year’s Central Coast Section playoff team, the 2011 Titans squad aims to be even better. One year older, the lineup is more mature and very dangerous. With one of the top pitchers in the section starting in the circle every game, Gunn has the look of the league champion and a CCS title contender.
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Gunn 6, Milpitas 1
G- 0 0 0 1 4 1 0- 6 8 1
M- 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 – 1 4 0
WP: Klausner. LP: Mosqueda
Records: Gunn 11-6, 5-0 El Camino. Milpitas 7-8, 4-1 El Camino.
