Chargers Rally To Stun Tigers
ELKHART – Elkhart Memorial softball coach Craig Sears was tired of watching his team come up on the short end of close losses this season.
Lauren Strausborger made sure with some clutch heroics Monday night that her coach didn’t have to endure another one.
Strausborger, down to her final strike, clubbed a two-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the host Crimson Chargers past Warsaw 5-4 in a Northern Lakes Conference thriller.
Strausborger, one of seven seniors for Memorial, took an 0-2 pitch and laced it down the right field line to plate teammates Kim Lucas and pinch runner Logan Williams to give the hosts the improbable victory.
Memorial escaped with the win after losing a 3-0 lead, including giving up a pair of runs in the top of the final frame to fall behind 4-3.
The Crimson Chargers improve to 9-8 overall and 4-2 in the NLC. Warsaw, which has lost three in a row, drops to 3-9 overall and 3-4 in league play.
“We’re fortunate to come out tonight with a win, but it’s nice to finally win a close one,” said Sears. “It’s a very big win in that it puts us at 4-2 in the NLC and we finally are on the right side of one of these. I’m tired on the one-run games. We lost to Penn by a run. We lost to Mishawaka by a run.”
Strausborger, Memorial’s lefty cleanup hitter, got a couple of words from her coach after taking a huge cut and missing badly on the first pitch of her final at-bat.
“I just told her we didn’t need a home run that we just needed a hit, a ball on the grass,” said Sears. “Lauren was been big for us all year. She’s struggled lately and was scuffling tonight before that last at-bat.”
Memoria’s Kim Lucas, a lefty freshman leadoff hitter, started the rally with a two-out single in the seventh. Kara Summers then reached on a Tiger error on shortstop Taylor Stiver and Paula Strausborger drew a walk to load the bases for her twin sister to be the hero.
Warsaw coach Jim Speicher thought Memorial got a little help in its final rally.
“I thought their girl was clearly out at first base on the ball hit to Taylor,” said Speicher. “They caught a break and took advantage of it. I’ll take this loss on me for my pitch call on that final pitch. We should have went away from her again.
“We battled hard and I liked our competitiveness tonight. We just didn’t catch any breaks.”
Warsaw took advantage of a pair of Memorial mental mistakes in the top of the seventh to take the lead. Ashton Warren, who opened the inning with a single, raced home when Memorial catcher Nikki Ambrose threw the ball towards second on a steal attempt by Stiver to tie the game at 3-3. Warren had went to third as Ambrose threw to first earlier in the inning on a strikeout. Kaleigh Speicher delivered a clutch two-out, two-strike RBI single to score Stiver to make it 4-3.
“We just had a couple of mental lapses in that seventh,” Sears said. “It was good to see us overcome that. We can build on this. We know we have talent. It’s just putting it all together.
“I thought it was a great game. Not a well-played game. But, both teams were fighting and scratching and clawing.”
Memorial took a 3-0 lead in the third. A Warsaw error on a bunt opened the door. Lucas smacked an RBI triple and Kara Summers added an RBI single to highlight the frame for the hosts.
Warsaw answered with a pair in the top of the fifth inning. Speicher drove in a run with a single and the Tigers scored their second run on a strange 3-4-6 double play off a Warsaw bunt in which Speicher was tagged out after trying to dive back into second base.
Coach Speicher saw his team commit four errors to drop its third straight conference contest. He juggled the lineup with several changes in the batting order.
“We had scored just one run in the last 12 innings so I was just trying to change things up tonight,” said coach Speicher.
Stiver, a sophomore, led the Tigers with three singles. Speicher had two hits and two RBI and senior Kayla Snider a double.
Speicher, a junior, took the loss in the circle for Warsaw. She allowed seven hits while striking out four, including the first two of the seventh inning, and walking one.
Freshman Lucas had two hits and scored two runs to pace the Chargers. Lauren Strausborger also had two hits.
Senior Paige Erwin notched the win in the circle for the hosts. She allowed eight hits while striking out one and walking none.
Warsaw outscored the host Crimson Chargers 10-8 to win the junior varsity contest.
Warsaw plays at Wawasee and Memorial hosts Plymouth in NLC games Wednesday.