*Story courtesy of www.flyergroup.com*
By Brent Glasgow
CLAYTON
— After struggling to put runners on base for much of Monday’s game
with Cloverdale, the Cascade softball team found its groove at just the
right time.
Down by two runs after four and a half innings,
Cascade rallied for one run in the fifth and two in the seventh — the
final run coming on an RBI single by Lauren Cooper — for a 3-2 victory
over the visiting Clovers as the bottom of the order came up big for
the Cadets.
“We said last week that the problem we were having
was 6, 7, and 8 weren’t really giving us anything,” Cascade coach Don
Helmick said. “Tonight 6, 7, and 8 was where we got our runs and our
hits, so if we can get everybody to come together, we might be okay.”
Mistakes
cost Cascade in the top of the fourth and helped put the Cadets in a
2-0 hole. After two Cloverdale singles, an easy pop-up to the mound was
dropped to load the bases. A sacrifice RBI by Jennifer Wiley scored a
run, and a wild pitch by Taylor Hueston brought home another.
“They
scored two runs with the ball never leaving the infield,” Helmick said.
“Fortunately we made a couple plays to eliminate the huge inning.”
A
hit batter and a fielding error in the top of the fifth put Cloverdale
runners at first and second with one out, but the Cadets escaped
unscathed thanks to a rundown double-play.
Cascade (4-4) cut
into the Clovers’ lead in the bottom of the fifth. Montana Wichman sent
a single up the middle, followed by a single from Hillary Tomblin, and
the runners took second and third on a throwing error before Kaneya
Cline drove Wichman home with a single.
While the strike zone seemed to vary throughout the contest, the Cadets zeroed in starting in the fifth.
“Going
into the final three innings I told the girls, ‘If the first or second
pitch isn’t yours, let it go. But if you’ve got one or two strikes,
it’s pretty much hittable or non-hittable,’” Helmick said.
With
the game on the line, Wichman led off the bottom of the seventh with a
single. With one out, Cline and Brandy Priest loaded the bases when
Cloverdale missed on two short tosses to the bag. Emilee Arnold blasted
an RBI single off of Cloverdale starter Nicole Mowery’s glove, and
Cooper ended the game with an RBI shot to center field.
Patience
paid off for Cascade. The Cadets only struck out four times, and strong
defensive plays by Mowery robbed them of at least two sure hits before
the seventh-inning rally.
“We were hitting it right at them, we
just needed to get base hits,” Helmick said. “We got some hits there in
the fifth and built some confidence, and they helped us out with some
mistakes and fortunately we took advantage of it.”
With a
conference title unlikely, Cascade is already preparing for tournament
time, and Helmick said gut-check wins like Monday’s can do a lot for
the Cadets later on.
“We told them they need to go out and play
sectional opponents and get what they can out of it and get some
confidence going towards sectional,” he said. “With the way the
weather’s been, our season’s already half over and we haven’t played
many games. We’re just trying to get better for sectional and build
that confidence.”
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