A frantic Worth County rally against Albany Wednesday night came up short as they fell 6-5 in Grand River Conference action. After starting off the conference with an impressive win against South Harrison, they have dropped two straight to fall to 1-2.
The Tigers had every reason to expect a win since they had beaten Albany before as they had already done so this year. But they ran their way out of two potential big innings and gave up a big inning in the fourth, allowing five Albany runs.
The Tigers were called out twice for interfering with Albany fielders making plays. The rule states that runners have to allow fielders to make plays on hit balls, even if it means going out of the baseline. Runners are not called out for running out of the baseline to avoid interference. However, they are called out if they interfere with fielders attempting to make a play on a hit ball. On the flip side, fielders can be called for obstruction when they impede the path of a baserunner.
The other cause for Worth County's downfall was defensive breakdowns in the fourth inning. The pitcher has to trust their fielders enough to throw strikes, and the fielders have to be able to stay on their toes and always expect the ball to be hit to them. When the pitcher starts walking batters, the fielders are not as sharp and that's what leads to errors. Put a team like Albany on the field, which has a lot of small girls who present small targets and who simply have to stand at the plate to get on base much of the time, and it makes it doubly tough.
Worth County pitcher Rikky Hunt was fighting the strike zone in the third and fourth innings, and finally all hell broke loose as Tiger fielders made four errors which led to five Albany runs in the inning. Dave Gilland replaced her with Hailey Hunt, but Albany teed off on her before she finally got out of the inning. That inning turned a 2-1 Worth County lead into a 6-2 deficit. Gilland put Rikky back in the fifth; she got in some more trouble in that inning, but retired Lauryn Shoush on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded with two outs on a pop fly to end the inning.
The Tiger bats could not break through against the stingy Albany defense until the seventh inning, when Sidney Troutwine, the best bunter on the team, beat one out down the first base line to lead off the inning. She was balked over to second, took third on a groundout by Adrian Fletchall, and then Rikky Hunt walked. Payton Adwell grounded out to score Troutwine as Hunt made it all the way to third. Mollie Blaine got the hit of the night when she hit a screamer in the gap that caromed off the center fielder's glove and dropped in for a double as Hunt scored. Hailey Hunt beat out a slow roller to short and was nearly picked off when the ball rolled away and she wandered too far off the bag; somehow, she got back in time to keep the game going. Rachael Gardner was hit by a pitch, her second of the night, and Dominique Findley walked to force in Blaine to make it 6-5, but Kennedy Galanakis struck out to end the game.
Worth County gave up a run aided by some wild pitches and an error in the third, but Payton Adwell picked Madalyn Rainey off third to bail out the Tigers. Worth County scored two in the bottom of the inning as Payton hit a hard shot off the third baseman's glove that took a crazy carom as Rikky Hunt and Sidney Troutwine both scored.
The game was the first for Adrian Fletchall. She showed some rust, but she saved several runs for the Tigers by making several difficult plays look routine at third base.
"I was proud that we didn't lay down in the 7th," said Gilland. "Nobody lost the game for us; we had many little things that game that cost us."
The girls also fell to Stanberry 6-0 as they only managed one hit in the loss. Worth County trailed 1-0 for much of the game. "We played fairly well defensively and we had some great hits; they were right at people," said Gilland.
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