Playoffs

After finishing in fourth place for the season, the Lionettes faced San Jose and St. Louis in a round robin playoff for the right to face Connecticut for the 1977 World Series crown.

The following are excerpts from newspaper articles about the playoffs.

FOURTH PLACE LIONETTES OPEN PLAYOFFS

ST. LOUIS – The spotlight, and the pressure, is on the Santa Ana Lionettes tonight as the International Women’s Pro Softball playoffs open in the park of second place St. Louis Hummers.

The three-night, round robin format featuring the Lionettes, St. Louis and the San Jose Sunbirds is designed to find an opponent for the Connecticut Falcons in next week’s World Series.

However, the Lionettes could decide their own fate on the first night, because they finished in fourth place during the regular season, the Lionettes play two games tonight, opening with San Jose. A pair of wins would put them in a commanding position. Two losses might be fatal.

Each team plays four games over the three days, with the squad emerging with the best record earning a trip to Connecticut. A tie would be played off Sunday.

San Jose plays its doubleheader Friday, with St. Louis slated to play a pair on Saturday. The Lionettes have their ace on the mound tonight in Donna Lopiano. Lopiano rolled up a 22-14 personal record this season, including nine shutouts and a 1.88 ERA. She led the league in strikeouts with 197. Hardluck Charlotte Graham will start the second game for Santa Ana.

At the plate, the Lionettes are paced by Vicki Schneider, whose .317 batting average was third best in the circuit. Linda McMorran’s 10 home runs tied her for second in that department, one behind the leader.

The Lionettes will be without regular centerfielder Debbie Ricketts, who is playing amateur basketball in France. Manager Bobby Attanasio is expected to move Mickey Davis from left field to center, Debby Van Dusen from right to left and insert Jackie Ledbetter in the open slot.

All playoff games will be aired live on KWRM-1370 AM at 5:30 each night. In addition, they will be tape delayed for KQLH-FM tonight at 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 8.

Lionettes Sweep Playoff Twinbill

The Santa Ana Lionettes, given only an outside chance of advancing to the International Women’s Professional Softball Association World Series, suddenly have the inside track.

The Lionettes posted victories over both the San Jose Sunbirds and the St. Louis Hummers last night at Hummer Field in Valley Park in the opening round of a round robin tournament to determine the IWPSA World Series opponent for the regular-season champion Connecticut Falcons.

Sparked by a sixth-inning, two-run homer by Mickey Davis and the two-hit pitching of Donna Lopiano (23-14), the Lionettes blanked San Jose 3-0, in last night’s first game. Then Jackie Ledbetter and Debbie Van Dusen took up the cause for Santa Ana and led the Lionettes to a 7-3 triumph over the Hummers.

With two on and two out in the fourth Ledbetter picked up her first two RBIs with a single to put the Lionettes ahead 4-1. Ledbetter homered in the sixth inning driving in Lopiano, who had singled. Van Dusen, who had been used only in home games for Santa Ana all season, went four-for-four at the plate, drove in two runs and scored once.

Bethel Stout homered for St. Louis in the second inning. With one out in the sixth, St. Louis scored twice on a double by Stout. Charlotte Graham (13-19) was the winning pitcher for Santa Ana. Margie Wright (24-11) took the loss for the Hummers.

Tonight, San Jose will play Santa Ana at 7:30 and the Hummers in the second game at 9.

Santa Ana Wins Pair

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – St. Louis is known as “the gateway to the west.” The Santa Ana Lionettes, women’s professional softball team, are trying to reverse that procedure in the IWPSA round robin playoffs in St. Louis.

Going into the second night of the round robin, Santa Ana could wrap up a berth in the championship playoffs next weekend at Connecticut with one more win and a St. Louis loss to San Jose tonight.

The Lionettes are the only team in the three-team round robin with a win so far after 3-0 and 7-3 victories last night over San Jose and St. Louis, respectively.

In the round robin which concludes Saturday, unless there’s a tie, each team plays the other two teams twice apiece. In the regular season, St. Louis, San Jose and Santa Ana finished 2-3-4 in the standings.

“If we can keep hitting the ball the way we did the first night we shouldn’t have any problem,” said Santa Ana manager Bob Attanasio. The Lionettes had much of their hitting power the first night from surprising sources, as Mickey Davis hit her second home run of the year and Jackie Ledbetter hit her first home run of the year.

“Ledbetter just doesn’t seem to feel pressured,” said Attanasio about the 19-year-old rookie. The manager used a designated hitter to bat for Ledbetter in the first game because he wanted more experience at the plate, but in the second game she drove in four runs with a two-run single in the fourth inning and a two-run homer in the sixth.

Santa Ana also played error free softball in the two games to back up strong complete-game pitching wins by Donna Lopiano and Charlotte Graham. Lopiano hurled a two-hitter, walking three and striking out three, in the 3-0 win over San Jose. Graham pitched a four-hitter in the 7-3 St. Louis, win, striking out four and walking three.

In the San Jose game, Vicki Schneider’s lead-off double produced a run when Mary Lou Pennington followed with a two-out single. Davis’ two-run homer in the sixth inning finished up the scoring.

Lionettes Win, Gain WPS Finals

ST. LOUIS – The Santa Ana Lionettes will have to break up a celebration long enough to play another game tonight in the Women’s Professional Softball playoff round robin against St. Louis, but the winner of the round robin has already been decided – the Lionettes.

Santa Ana, which beat San Jose for the second time in the round robin last night, 2-1 will face regular-season champion Connecticut in a best-of-five series starting Friday night in Meriden, Conn.

After the Lionettes beat San Jose, they sat around and watched a courageous showing by the Sunbirds, who despite being mathematically eliminated rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat St. Louis 5-3. Going into tonight’s final action, Santa Ana is 3-0, San Jose 1-2 and St. Louis 0-2.

Tonight, in a game that will be broadcast live over 1370 AM at 5:30 (PDT), and delayed at 8 over 57.1 FM, St. Louis faces Santa Ana. The concluding game of the series has the Hummers playing San Jose in the nightcap.

Last night’s Lionette win can be credited to team defense and some finesse on offense, although the Lionettes did manage six hits off Rhonda Ebersole compared to the three the Sunbirds got off Donna Lopiano.

The Lionettes’ first run came in the third inning after they’d left the lead-off batter on base in the first two innings. Vicki Schneider beat out a bunt, stole second and scored on a pair of wild pitches. Another run came in the fourth as Lopiano, who was working on a no-hitter at the time, singled to start that frame. An error on Mickey Davis’ ground ball put Lopiano on second and Jackie Ledbetter successfully bunted the runners ahead one base. Rosie Adams and Lopiano then worked a suicide squeeze to give Santa Ana its other run.

In the seventh, San Jose, which had been victimized by two Lionettes’ double plays, got the first two runners on base. Lopiano struck out Carol Salsbury, but Jill Von Adelung singled to load the bases. Sue Lindh hit a hard ground ball to the right side. Adams made a diving backhand stab, and while sitting prone threw out Teri Mariani at home for the second out. The Lionettes’ only error of the night then allowed the one run to score, but Lopiano got Merribeth Carlson to ground out to end the game.

Debbie Van Dusen was the only Lionette with more than one hit, getting a single and double, and she is now 7 for 11 in the series.

Lionettes Bow

ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Hummers rallied for three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning Saturday night to defeat the Santa Ana Lionettes 4-3 on the final night of the Women’s Pro Softball Playoffs.

But the Lionettes could not have cared less about the loss. They had already secured a spot in the WPS Worlds Series September 1-5 against Connecticut with three wins the first two nights.

St. Louis made it a sweep Saturday as it defeated the San Jose Sunbirds 2-1 to close out the series, one which was a total success for the Lionettes.

To read news articles about the 1977 playoffs, see below.