Despite
missing two players, the Tigers pulled off what was likely
their best overall performance of the season, certainly their
best game hitting. In taking on the Thrashers, the
Tigers faced a team that had lost narrowly to the Panthers
(8-7) and Titans (10-9) over the past few days, and were
looking to get past the Tigers for a rematch with those teams.
Brittany Leeper and
Audrey Hipple
were both out sick for the game, leaving the Tigers with huge
holes in their lineup, and shorthanded in the field.
Their teammates responded well, hitting from the
beginning. Rutherford Stephens tripled to left to open
the game, and Katie Westmoreland flew deep over the
leftfielder to drive in Rutherford. A belated effort to
stretch for a double cost her, though, as she was called out
at second base. Caroline Kilday walked on four pitches,
and Allyson Williams singled her to third, sending the first
pitch deep to center. A walk to Tina Savic loaded the
bases for Ashley Favors, who drew a walk herself to pick up
the Tigers second run. Kinsey Phillips singled between
the pitcher and second base to send in the Tigers final run of
the inning.
Rutherford pitched the first, and
looked strong after several disappointing outings.
Still, a hit batter and two walks started the Thrashers inning
before Kinsey stayed with a hard grounder from Gretchen
Hendrix off her glove, retrieving the ball towards second and
nipping the runner there. Rutherford settled down and
struck out the next batter, and needed just one more out to
preserve the lead. She got ahead of the batter before
four straight balls missed, then hit the next two to load the
bases and push the run across the plate. At 3-3 at the
end of one, the Thrashers would not see a tie the rest of the
way.
Stami Luchette picked up an inning
opening walk and stole second, where she waited as Rutherford
popped high to the shortstop. Katie picked her up,
rifling a grounder through the infield and deflecting out to
the fence, sending Stami around for the lead.
Caroline
walked again, and with runners on second and third, Allyson
singled them both in. Katie took the 6-3 lead and
dominated the Thrashers, throwing nine strikes in her first
eleven pitches to strike out two before walking a
batter. She closed the inning with her third strikeout,
and the Tigers went to the third with a chance to put the
Thrashers in a huge hole.
They took advantage of that
opportunity, Irene Tsinajinnie fouling off the two
strikes she was offered while taking four balls. Tina
walked as well, and Ashley filled the bases, she too fouling
off two in drawing the pass. Stami came up next, picking
up an RBI on yet another walk, and Rutherford singled to the
right side of the infield to drive in another. Ashley
couldn't quite get far enough down the line to score the final
run, and so Katie had to come up to finish the inning.
She took the fifth walk of the inning to get Ashley in and put
the Tigers ahead 9-3.
The third inning seemed key at the
time, without foreknowledge of what was to come in the
fourth. Another stop by Katie would leave the Tigers
with a commanding lead, three runs would close them to three
with the Thrashers best hitters poised to start their
fourth. Katie was a pitch away to the leadoff batter, a
full count walk putting Laura Stone on first, but Katie
handled a comebacker and tossed to Caroline at first for the
out; a quick relay back kept Stone at third. A pair of
walks loaded the bases for Jessica Cook, who Katie got to
ground out to Kinsey, the Thrashers fourth run scoring on the
play. Katie was exhausted at this point, pitching
consecutive innings in the heat and oppressive humidity.
She walked the next two, and Rutherford was called in to throw
strikes in hopes of picking up the final out. The strike
she got, but it was drilled to right for Kellie Terwilliger's
second hit of the night.
So the Tigers lead had been trimmed
to 9-6...that quickly became moot. Caroline blooped an
infield single, flying down the line much too quickly to
catch. Allyson doubled her in on a grounder to short,
Caroline scoring and Allyson taking second as the Thrashers inadvisably
tried to catch these quickest of the Tigers. Allyson
took third as Irene was nipped at first base, then scored on Tina's shot to third base.
Ashley singled over the
shortstop as Tina hustled to third, putting runners on the
corners for Kinsey.
Kinsey hit sharply up the middle,
leaving the Thrashers no play but to stop the Tigers by
throwing to the pitcher. With runners on the corners,
Stami fouled off her first pitch, then ripped a ball through
the hole on the right side for a single, scoring both Ashley
and Kinsey from first. She could have undoubtedly taken
a double had she chosen. Now ahead 14-6, the Tigers
returned to the top of the order - bringing Rutherford and
Katie to the plate in each of the four innings! Rutherford took advantage with a liner to the centerfield
fence, and Katie drove in two, giving her a five RBI game,
with a long fly ball single to the same spot. Caroline
now batted for the second time in the inning, again singling
to put runners at first and third for Allyson, who crushed the
first pitch to the deepest part of the field in left for her
fourth hit to clear the bases and match Katie with 5 RBI.
Although the Tigers had just one out,
the 18-6 lead was massive enough to allow the inning to be
turned over, letting the Thrashers take their shot at a
comeback, and resuming the Tigers inning should they manage to
tie it up. A single and a triple gave the Thrashers a
run as the Tigers made their own unadvised throws, but they
quickly settled down. Caroline juggled and held on to a
pop to her left at short, and a strikeout put the Tigers on
the verge of the win. Hendrix kept the Thrashers alive
for another batter with her third hard-hit ball of the game, a
double to score the Thrashers last run. Rutherford
handled a grounder to the circle and quickly gunned to Katie
for the win.
The Tigers now advance to the loser
bracket finals against the Titans, in as good shape as they
could hope. A win there would put them into the finals
against the Panthers.
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Recent Results
Sunday, May 20
Panthers defeat
Titans
Tigers 18, Thrashers 8
Upcoming Games
[Post-Season
Tournament brackets]
Monday, May 21
Titans v Tigers
(7:45)
Tuesday, May 22
Panthers v
Titans/Tigers winner (7:45)
Wednesday, May 23
If necessary -
Panthers v Titans/Tigers winner (TBD)
Tiger of the Game
A
team win by any measure, the top individual achievement in
tonight's game goes to Stami
Luchette. Taking a pair of
walks, scoring once and gaining an RBI on the other, Stami
grabs Tiger of the Game for her third at bat,
scorching a single to the right field fence to drive in two
runs - her first hit of the year. In all, she scored
twice and drove in three runs, and even took over at catcher
in the final inning for the short-handed Tigers, performing
wonderfully behind the mask
Sister Allyson Williams had
a stellar game as well. The siblings were a combined 5-5,
with 8 RBI and 4 runs scored, having a hand in 12 of the Tigers 18
runs!
Next Game
Date: Monday, May 21
Time: 7:45 PM
Opponent: Titans
Drinks:
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