Early woes sink Burroughs

But the run cavalcade wasn't all Schulman's fault. The Burroughs defense committed three errors in the first inning, helping pave the way for two South Torrance runs. A two-run error in the third helped to lead to four more runs by the Spartans. Schulman did walk two and gave up two hits in a second inning in which the Spartans were able to push across a run.

"When we played them in that doubleheader early this season, Haley shut then down and she didn't give up a run in something like 10 total innings," Nicol said. "She was definitely off today. She said she was struggling with her pitches. She was having a hard time finding her location and she was having a hard time with her mechanics."

While Schulman and the Indians suffered their problems early on, South Torrance pitcher Carolyn Snodgress breezed through the first five innings, not surrendering a hit. Snodgress gave up five hits, struck out seven and walked one. She also induced 10 flyouts.

Snodgress successfully used her rise ball and continually got strikes by painting the outside of the plate.

"That's my bread and butter," Snodgress said about her outside pitch. "[The umpire] wasn't giving me that early on, but he did later in the game."

Schulman settled down after the first three innings, retiring six straight batters in the fifth and sixth.

"She's a good pitcher," South Torrance Coach Kevin Van Waardenburg said. "I have to give it to her. They had a great season and she was a big part of it."

Down, 7-0, the Indians bats finally came alive in the sixth inning. Michelle Santiago led off and legged out an infield single for the first hit off of Snodgress. With one out, Shannon Trujillo put a ball over the second baseman's glove for a single. Schulman followed and reached base on an error to account for Burroughs' first run. With two out, Davina Del Castillo tripled off the right-center field fence, plating Trujillo and Schulman.

The Indians tacked on a fourth run in the seventh when Sidney Ortega singled and was driven home on a double by Santiago. Santiago was two for three.

"I am very proud of the way our team fought to get back in this game in the late innings," Nicol said. "They could have just given up, but they stuck with it. We won innings four through seven; it's just that innings one through three were so bad that we just couldn't battle back from that."