The bubble burst for Northeast Nodaway on the very same field where they gelled and beat Union Star behind the pitching of Taylor Dougan. Four days later, they returned to that field for the start of the Union Star Tournament and were dismissed to the loser's brackets with a 10-3 loss to King City. The Bluejays showed the capability of playing with the Wildkats, who lost a lot of players from the strong team they had last year but who were still a solid team. But they ran their way out of two potential big innings and made several errors as they could not cope with King City's scratch and claw tactics. Throughout the year, they have struggled defensively against teams who showed the ability to get the bunt down against them.
Northeast, which lost the coin flip, had to jump on King City early, but they ran their way out of one big inning when Taylor Dougan reached on a two-base error when the right fielder lost a routine fly ball in the lights at right field. But Dougan hesitated when rounding second and then took off for third and was an easy out at third. That loomed up strongly as Northeast proceeded to load the bases with two outs as Rachel Runde singled through the hole in short to left, Blair Schmitz singled past short to center for another hit, and Hallie Oelze walked. But Sarah Fox struck out to end the Northeast first.
King City wasted no time in making sure that Northeast didn't have another chance to jump on them. They showed some of the best plate discipline of any of the teams in the area, forcing Taylor Dougan to throw two strikes and then fouling off 10 pitches until they found a good one to hit. Northeast was hesitating when fielding bunts, making all the difference in the world between an out and a hit, keeping many innings going. The Wildkats scored four runs in the bottom of the first as Emma Hill beat out a bunt, Cheyanne Stoll walked after a long battle with Dougan in which she fouled off a bunch of pitches, and Whitney Walters tripled over Sarah Fox's head all the way to the wall in left. Walters scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0. Webber Walters walked and Bridgette Bryson reached on another bunt single. Addisyn Derks lined out to Blair Schmitz, who doubled off Bryson at first, but Mattie Crisler reached on a throwing error from Rachel Runde at third, scoring Webber Walters to make it 4-0.
Northeast made some noise in the second, but they could not score. Kristan Judd opened the inning with a pop fly that dropped in between left and center for a hit. Allison Carter grounded out to move her to second. Mallorie Peters struck out, but Taylor Dougan hit a line shot into center field to move Judd to third. But Emily Bryant grounded out to third to end the inning.
King City failed to score in the bottom of the second; Emma Hill tried to bunt her way on, but Taylor Dougan fielded the bunt cleanly and threw to first for the out with no hesitation this time. The Wildkats wasted Cheyanne Stoll's two-out single when Dougan retired Whitney Walters on strikes.
Rachel Runde tripled to left to the wall to lead off the third inning for Northeast. Blair Schmitz reached on a three base error as Runde kept her distracted at third and she threw the ball away. Hallie Oelze's grounder couldn't score Schmitz, but Sarah Fox's grounder did as Schmitz took off with the throw from third and made it safely when the throw home rolled away to cut Northeast's deficit in half to 4-2.
King City used three Northeast errors in the third to reestablish their lead. Webber Walters reached on a single to left and went to second when Katrina Freemyer misplayed it. Bridgette Bryson reached on an error when Rachel Runde simply swiped her glove at a grounder instead of playing it, moving Walters to third. Dougan struck out Derks, but Bryson stole second and Crisler reached on an error when Hallie Oelze, covering first from second on a bunt situation, dropped a throw and it rolled away from her, allowing two runs to score to make it 6-2.
Wildkat pitcher Cheyanne Stoll struck out the side in the top of the fourth and then King City provided the dagger in the bottom of the fourth. Emma Hill hit a fly ball to right field. Allison Carter chased it on the dead run, but it sliced away from her for a triple. Stoll's single scored Hill, Whitney Walters walked, and then Bryson's three-run home run to left field all but ended it, making it 10-2.
Northeast threatened to make a run of it in the fifth, but ran their way out of a big inning for the second time that night. Emily Bryant walked and Rachel Runde moved her to second on a grounder. Blair Schmitz singled to score Runde, but then tried to go to second on the throw home. King City cut off the throw and threw Schmitz out at second to end the rally.
No comments:
Post a Comment