SOFTBALL ROUNDUP: GRANADA HILLS OFF TO SEMIS.

Byline: Daily News

Granada Hills' Mona Minsini didn't know what to think when she was thrown into the pitching circle against a tough opponent Saturday in the Hart of Newhall softball tournament at Central Park in Santa Clarita.

``I didn't think about it much,'' said Minsini, a freshman pitcher who appeared in her first varsity game with a tough assignment against Hart. ``I just knew I had to pitch well.''

The freshman limited Hart (1-1) to five hits and drove in Vanessa Salazar with the game-winning run in an eight-inning, 2-1 victory that puts Granada Hills (4-0) in the semifinals next week against Highland of Palmdale.

Granada Hills' ace, Kat Walsh, secured the win with a two-strike out performance.

Earlier, Walsh went 10 innings and struck out six to beat Harvard-Westlake of Studio City 2-1. Walsh's save caps a weekend in which a day earlier she had tossed 142 pitches and struck out 12 in a nonleague game against Alemany of Mission Hills.

Highland (2-0) advanced to the semifinals by snapping Westlake's (1-1) 26-game winning streak that dates to last season with a 4-3 win. Before that, pitcher Lauren Tantlinger struck out seven and three players had two hits in a 2-0 victory over Chaminade of West Hills (1-1).

The other semifinal game will feature Marmonte League opponents Agoura and Thousand Oaks.

Agoura (2-0) opened the tournament by taking advantage of Lancaster's six errors en route to an 11-3 mercy-rule victory that was capped by Kelly Mead's three-run home run in the fifth.

Later, Agoura continued to be a nightmare on opponents as Canyon committed six errors in a 6-2 quarterfinal loss. In that game, Beth Snow was 3 for 4 with a run and Jamie Pearce scored two runs for Agoura.

Thousand Oaks got off to a good start with a two home-run performance by Chelsey Berthiaume in an 8-0 win over Hoover. Melissa Smith was 3 for 4 on the day, including a 2 for 3 performance as Thousand Oaks beat El Camino Real of Woodland Hills 5-2 in the quarterfinals. For El Camino Real, Kelly Oswald had a double as her team had just three hits, all of them in a two-run fifth inning.

--Other games: Chaminade's Danielle Zymkowitz struck out eight of the nine batters she faced before leaving the game in a 9-1 victory over Chatsworth. ... Erica Ricker struck out seven as Quartz Hill lost 2-1 to El Camino Real in the first round. ... Caitlin Bailey was 3 for 4 with an RBI for Newbury Park in an eight-inning, 4-3 loss to Canyon.

- Julio Cortez

Suzanne Manlet Invitational at Rancho Simi Park, Simi Valley 

Second round

--Notre Dame 3, Royal 0: Rachel Barraza went 3 for 3 with two doubles and a RBI as Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks defeated No. 2-ranked Royal of Simi Valley.

Corie Blanton and Renae Brauchman each went 2 for 3 with an RBI for Notre Dame (2-0).

--Camarillo 10, La Reina 1: De Ann Young went 3 for 3 with an RBI and a stolen base as No. 1-ranked Camarillo defeated La Riena of Thousand Oaks.

Camarillo (2-0) will play Notre Dame on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. in the champion semifinals.

First round

--Royal 5, Oxnard 0: Jordan McPherson pitched a three-hit shutout as Royal (1-1) defeated Oxnard.

--Notre Dame 11, Rio Mesa 1: Megan Bell and Corie Blanton each hit home runs for Notre Dame in an easy victory over Rio Mesa of Oxnard.

--Camarillo 5, Burroughs 0: Last year's Daily News Player of the year, Cambria Miranda, homered for Camarillo in the victory over Burroughs of Burbank (1-1). Sophomore Lindsay Dean gave up only two hits and struck out seven batters in her varsity debut for Camarillo.

- Justin Frank

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Photo:

Granada Hills' pitcher Kat Walsh helped her team seal the win against Hart.

Julio Cortez/Daily News