News Articles

Lionettes Open Against Division Champions

With Bobby Riggs, the Santa Ana Winds band and a lion cub as extra added attractions, the Santa Ana Lionettes open women’s pro softball’s second season tonight at the Santa Ana Bowl.

San Jose, western division champion ahead of the Lionettes a year ago after leading most of the way, will provide the opposition in a nine-inning lidlifter following ceremonies at 6:30.

The teams will be back at the Bowl Saturday night for a doubleheader starting at 7.

A highlight of tonight’s program will be an attempt by former tennis star Riggs, now known as the “king of the male chauvinists,” to attempt to hit the pitches of new Santa Ana hurler Donna Lopiano, a nationally known star who was with Chicago in 1976.

The game will mark the first official try at playing with the pitching mound four feet further back from the plate. The move was made in an attempt to increase the scoring.

An added weekend sidelight will be the opportunity for new Santa Ana skipper Nancy Ito, a longtime catcher for the amateur Orange Lionettes, to send a former San Jose battery against the Sunbirds.

Pitcher Charlotte Graham, who was reportedly among several unhappy players at San Jose, will pitch one of the games for Santa Ana. The catcher is Mary Pennington.

Also obtained from Chicago was Vicki Schneider. Other newcomers, who have joined six returnees, are Ito, Adele Johnson and Genny Hinkle from San Diego’s team, ex-San Bernardino Gem Linda McMorran and Jackie Ledbetter, who made Santa Ana as a free agent following open tryouts.

Carol Spanks and Shirley Topley, who led the first Santa Ana representative after a long association with the Orange Lionettes, left the team following the league’s troubled first year. The only other 1977 members are Bakersfield, defending champion Connecticut, St. Louis and Buffalo.

Ten members of the San Jose squad, including one other pitcher and three infielders, return from last season’s team. Heading the Sunbirds back is hurler Bonnie Johnson.

To read more news articles from the Lionettes 1977 regular season, see below.