Game 15 - Sat 5.17 - L

Well, we sure hit a wall in our last match up against the Stingers on Saturday, didn’t we? Hats off to the Stingers as they handed us what was possibly our soundest defeat of the season. Nothing we could’ve done here Whos. We played to the best of our abilities and a mixture of some of our hits not going our way and the Stingers’ solid performance put a damper on our hopes for a victory on Saturday.

FINAL SCORE
Stingers: 14
Whos: 4

RECAP
Coming off our victory against the Fireballs last Tuesday, the Whos came with a lot of confidence for Saturday’s game. But the Stingers, who, as previously stated, have the most skilled/experienced players in our division was definitely going to be a considerable challenge for the Whos. Little did we know that they would stifle our offense the way they did.

Leading things off, the Stingers took to the plate to face Shelbey at the mound. An initial pop up was dropped by Gaby at 1st and the runner was safe. After the 1st strike out of the side, giving the Whos a glimmer of hope, the runner managed to steal her way to 3rd. The next batter hit one into the outfield and put the Stingers on the board, but the Whos were able to bring the ball back to hold the runner at 1st. A couple of walks allowed the Stingers to load the bases and walk one more in, but Shelbey kept her cool in the Saturday afternoon heat and struck out the next 2, holding the Stingers to 2 for the inning.

The Whos taking their turn at bat, hoping to put up a similar offense to their last game, was denied by the Stinger pitcher as Gaby, Mari and Jade were struck out in quick succession.

Shelbey’s next turn at the rubber started with a strike out of the 1st batter. But after a few walks and a perfect bunt the bases were loaded and the Stingers were threatening to score. The next Stinger roped one out into deep center field scoring 3. Shelbey walked the next batter to put a runner on 1 and 3, then struck out the next. The next batter connected on another pitch and put it into the outfield again and scored the max 4 runs for the Stingers.

The 2nd inning for the Whos was a little more eventful. Destinee struck out to lead off. At her turn, Angelica walked and for the 1st time in the game the Whos were on base. Kas, trying to extend her string of doubles connected with the pitch, but it popped up and Angelica took off for 2nd. The pitch was caught by the Stingers for 1 out, then they tagged 1st to catch Angelica off base – since she didn’t tag up – to complete the double play and keep us scoreless at the half way mark.

Jade took the rubber for the 1st time on the day and struck her first batter out, but lost the groove and loaded the bases. She struck her next batter out for the 2nd and it looked like she would hold the Stingers to their current score, but another walk allowed 1 run to cross home. One more walk crossed the plate before Jade was able to strike the 3rd Stinger out for the inning.

The situation looking grim, the Whos started to sense the urgency and tried to put together an offense. Shelbey’s first hit was fielded and she was thrown out at 1st. This was followed up by Casey, Hylah and Allison all taking a walk to load the bases. Maricella came up to bat and on the 1st bobbled catch, Allison took off like a bullet to steal 2nd. The only problem here, was that no one called for the run as the bases were loaded and the Stingers, reacting quickly, got the ball to 1st to tag her out as she was off base—you gotta love how this girl plays though, she’s aggressive and once she set her eyes on her goal, she was not going to be denied. Maricella walked to re-load the bases. Gaby then hit the ball which sent Casey towards home, but the force out at 3rd negated what would be the Whos’ 1st score of the game.

Jade came back to the rubber and walked her first batter. A pop up was missed by the infield allowing the Stingers to score again. Another missed toss to 1st allowed another before Jade was able to strike a batter out. Our errors started to hurt us here as an overthrow advanced the Stingers enough to score 2, but Jade, trying to slow them down managed to retrieve the ball and held the final Stinger runner on 2nd in what ended up being a pretty lengthy stand off, before the runner decided to hold on 2nd. On the next play, Gaby managed to get her runner out, but a walk and another hit to the outfield would score 2 more for the Stingers, extending their lead, before Jade was able to strike the last batter out for the inning.

Going into our last at bats with an insurmountable 14 point deficit, the Whos gave it their best shot as we were only just coming to the 2nd part of our lineup. Mari walked. Jade hit a triple to finally put us on the board by driving Mari in. Destinee, then Angelica walked to load the bases. Kas put the ball in play and was able to bring in 2 more, but Angelica, standing up coming into home was tagged for the 1st out of the inning. Another hit by Shelbey was caught out, but not before Kas crossed the plate. Casey and Hylah both walked again and a hit by Allison, sealed the deal as the Stingers were able to make the play at home by tagging Casey out for the 3rd and the game.

GAME BALL
For her great outfield performance, including a much improved hustle and keeping the ball in play by quickly throwing it back to the infield when needed, Maricella received the game ball for this game. Good job out there Maricella!