9-3-09 v. Reeds Spring (COC)
Win 4-3; Tristia Patton, 6 K in 8 innings
Hits: Haleigh Brown; Megan Vest, RBI; Bekah Patton, RBI; Sarah Magana;
We were down 2-0 in the 2nd when we got on by error and drew 2 walks. We stole second twice (Ashley Payne and Jonna Welch) and were able to force mistakes by the Reeds Spring defense. We scored on wild pitches and tied the game. We stayed tied with some good defense and pitching. There was a lot of excitement, just not on the scoreboard. But in the 8th that changed.
Reeds Spring started the 8th with a runner on by error. She was sacrificed to 2nd and the next hitter grounds to 3rd with the baserunner advancing to 3rd. A wild pitch allowed the runner to score. Sarah Magana led off the bottom of the 8th getting on with a catcher’s interference. She advanced to 3rd on a single by Haleigh Brown only after getting into a rundown between 2nd and 3rd. Brown took second during the rundown. Megan Vest singled, scoring Magana to tie the game at 3. With 2 outs, Bekah Patton singled in front of a diving center fielder to drive in Brown with the winning run.
Tristia did an outstanding job of scattering hits and pitching around errors. We have some work to do to clean up our defense. The mistakes we are making shouldn’t be too difficult to straighten out. Most of the time we are “pressing” by trying to do too much. We have to be able to play the game 1 out at a time at a fast pace. Other errors are happening because we aren’t in good position.
Offensively, we are putting the ball in play much better as a team. There will be nights like tonight and Tuesday (Willard) where we put it in play solidly right at people, then there will be nights like Monday (El Dorado Springs, 12 hits) where we seem to find the holes. We are running the bases hard and putting pressure on people even when we are not knocking the fences over. We are competing every time out and have had our chances in every game this year. We just needed this outcome tonight. The girls are buying into what we are doing and we learning not to “press” offensively. We like a lot of what we see on the field.
JV: Bolivar 13, Reeds Spring 5; Our younger girls are hitting the ball very well and putting pressure on defenses, they are a fun and exciting group to watch. Megan Elliott struck out 6 and wins in relief
Records: Varsity 4-4 (1-0); JV 3-2; (1-0)
Up Next: Tuesday 9-8-09 @ Buffalo (COC); Ozark Tournament Friday 9-11 and Saturday 9-12-09
