SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS: Tonight under the bright lights of a small city, the Heights looked to feed off of last night’s late-inning comeback over the league-leading Firebells, and lift themselves out of the standings cellar.
Opposite the Heights, the Hunters, no stranger to finding offense in the final frames, hoped to slide into the second half, closer to second place.
It began with a good ole pitcher’s duel between Boston right-hander Alli Schroder and NY southpaw Claire Eccles, who, we learned in an interesting fun fact, wears her eyeglasses batting and fielding, but never on the mound – an approach that worked on both sides of the plate tonight.
After a rare first inning where both teams came up short, Kylee Lahners drew a one-out walk, in the top of the second, Alyssa Zettlemoyer, trying to find some magic out of the bottom of the order, took one for the team and Elodie Ciamarro sent a base hit up the middle to load ‘em for Madison Willan, who put one on the scoreboard with a RBI ground out to short.
Boston answered back in the bottom half off Maïka Dumais’ leadoff single and a series of walks, scoring the tying run on a wild pitch.
The third came and went with much ado about nothing, unless you’re a Boston fan and want to gloat about the fact that Denae Benites struck out.
Schroder looked sharp heading into the fourth, until Zettlemoyer found her sweet spot, and an error, a free pass, a stolen base, and Yonetani’s two RBI stand-up double the other way, got in her way. With two outs and a runner in scoring position, Benites, riding an eight-game hitting streak, sent the first pitch deep to left center and Boston breathed a sigh of relief when it landed into the glove of Ticara Geldenhuis.
Oliver Bricker relieved Schroder in the fifth, with under two innings under her belt and a pair of runs. The left-hander, who hails from Ohio, immediately gave up five consecutive hits, was a victim of a bad hop, and when her night was all said and done, the Heights tacked on three additional runs.
Denver Bryant, making her debut on the bump, replaced Bricker to face Yonetani with a one strike count and runners on the corners. The Japanese standout drove in a run on an infield single, paving the way for Benites to do more damage. Settled in at the plate with two NYers on base, Benites cracked a smile at Bryant’s nasty first-pitch curve, then flied out to center to end the inning.
In the bottom half, Studer walked two, hit one and with the bases full of Bostonians, Suzuka Yamamoto launched a two-RBI stand-up double to deep left, injecting the Hunters with a dose of rally fever. Catcher Beth Greenwood, brilliant behind the dish gunning down a New Yorker at second, nailing another in a rundown at the plate, sent a 3-1 pitch up the middle to get four runs closer.
In the top of the seventh, New York tacked on another run that they didn’t need. Benites got one more crack to extend her streak, but settled for a walk to give her the consolation gift of reaching base in every game this season. And the Heights Jaida Lee, who came in relief in the sixth, closed the seventh, in order, with a pair of K’s, for a league-leading 13.
Yonetani returned as Player of the Game, 3-5 with three RBIs and Hunter’s manager Jemile Weeks had the dubious honor of being the first manager ejected in the WPBL – disputing an overturned call on a ball that looked like it was caught cleanly by Raine Padgham.
Stay tuned for more NoCal SoCal action when the Queens and Firebells have at it once more on Friday night.