Floetker leads Seahawks to victory

HUNTINGTON BEACH – With the game on the line, Holli Floetker delivered.

Ocean View’s sophomore right-handed pitcher not only escaped a jam in the top of the seventh inning of Thursday’s CIF Southern Section Division IV quarterfinal game against visiting Gahr, she also burst the hopes of the Gladiators with a big fourth-inning hit. Both moments keyed the Seahawks’ 2-1 victory that puts Ocean View in Tuesday’s semifinals.

First, Floetker smashed a line-drive, two-run home run well past the fence in center-field with two-out in the bottom of the fourth that sent Ocean View to its first lead of the game.

The Seahawks wouldn’t trail again after Floetker clubbed her eighth home run of the year.

“I’m pretty sure it was an inside screwball I hit,” Floetker said of the pitch she sent toward a group of fans sitting in the outfield. “It felt pretty good leaving my bat.”

After Floetler’s blast, she went on to tame the Gladiators in both the fifth and sixth innings. Then induced Amanda Marquez to pop out to second base to begin the top of the seventh before falling into some trouble.

Britney Miller reached base on an infield error before Jasmine Ruiz walked. Floetker then struck out Alyssa Morales but gave up her third walk of the game to left-handed hitter and Gahr pitcher Roni Alvarado to load the bases.

t was then that the rain began to fall harder and Floetker fell into a 2-0 pitch count to Devin Salmones. But Floetker came back to throw three consecutive strikes to end the game.

“I was just trying to keep the ball dry,” Floetker said. “I really hadn’t noticed the rain until I looked down at the ground. It was awesome to get out of that inning. It was so much stress off of me.

Fourth-seeded Ocean View improved to 26-1 overall and will play at Pomona Catholic in a semifinal Tuesday. Pomona Catholic knocked off top-seeded La Quinta of La Quinta, 1-0, Thursday.

Gahr, champion of the San Gabriel Valley League, ended its year 18-13.

The Gladiators lost, 2-1, in the second round of the playoffs for the second-straight year.

Up until the fourth, Ocean View really couldn’t muster much off Alvarado although they did go for six hits off the Gladiators’ ace.

Floetker, meanwhile, gave up only one hit but walked eight in improving to 17-1.

Gahr’s lone hit was a second-inning single by Marquez who was thrown out at second base while trying to stretch the hit into a double.

The Gladiators used consecutive walks, a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly in the first inning, to score their only run.

In addition to Floetker’s game-winning homer, Brenna Klein, Autumn Martinez, Nikole Afusia, Brooke Hitchcock and Vanessa Cardoza all singled.

“It’s a huge win,” Floetker said. “Everyone is really excited. I don’t know if an Ocean View team has been to the semifinals before.”

One has: the 1985 Seahawks, led by Jackie Oakley, went 32-0 and won the CIF-SS 4-A Division by beating Westminster in the title game.

The 2008 Seahawks took one step closer to winning a title Thursday. They’ll try to take another Tuesday.