Warriors, Chargers End Up Tied Down
By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews
SYRACUSE – Wawasee and West Noble were feeling left in the dark Tuesday night.
After playing to a 6-6 scoreline after seven innings, the umpires deemed it was too dark to continue, ending the non-conference softball battle in a tie.
Scoring five runs in the seventh inning, Wawasee’s furious rally would tie the ball game. But seven innings is all the teams would get in a finish mimicking a Tuesday night time limit contest at the CCAC rather than a Tuesday night high school tilt. After Tori Franklin struck out Molly McDonald with the bases loaded to get out of the disastrous frame for the Chargers, the home plate umpire raised his arms, signaling to each bench his decision had been made.
Looking like a slow pitch time limit conclusion, each team stood in semi-disbelief at their fence posts as the decision set in.
“There’s not much you can do in a decision like that,” said Wawasee head coach Chloe McRobbie, whose team played about an hour later Monday night against Lakeland than the 7:30 p.m. appointed curfew on Tuesday. In a plot twist, it began steadily raining about 10 minutes later. “It’s pretty tough when we played until 8:30 yesterday and then they call it early today. It’s a tough break because I felt like we were taking all of the momentum. The girls were disappointed they had that taken away from them.”
To even get to that point, Wawasee’s final frame awakening was some kind of performance it lacked for most of the first six innings. Wawasee loaded the bases without the benefit of a hit, then scored its first run of the rally on a fielding error. A pair of bases loaded walks by Ari Garcia and Kiaundra Olson followed, Garcia’s pass chasing starter Kacee Click.
After Franklin got a strikeout, Haylee Allen then sent a shot to right field for an RBI single, cutting the lead to one. Jaci Worrell then coaxed another Franklin walk to bring in the tying run.
Franklin wasn’t out of the woods yet, with the bases still loaded and only one out, but would manage strikeouts of Jaiden Rocha and McDonald to end the threat.
Wawasee only managed three hits before the seventh, all three doubles off of Click, who struck out seven Warriors.
Allen was efficient in a complete game performance. The freshman struck out 12, but ran into trouble in the fourth, when West Noble (3-0-1) used a pair of two-run hits from Julia Vargas and Lily Nelson to build a 6-1 lead. Victoria Franklin added an RBI in the second inning for the Chargers.
“What we’ve been talking about is getting on base early in the game and then stringing together runners,” McRobbie said. “This game is not over until you say it’s over. We just have to keep motivating them when they are down. Last night we had a 10-run inning, tonight we come back in the seventh. I wish we wouldn’t have to do that to tie games, but I’m proud of the team for being able to score runs like that.”
Tuesday’s contest was the third in as many days for Wawasee (0-2-1). After allowing 24 runs in its first two games, McRobbie was encouraged by her team’s ability to finally catch the rabbit.
“We want our hitters thinking ‘yes’ and if the pitch is there, blow it up,” McRobbie said. “Every time they should be thinking that. Be aggressive, make contact and put the ball in play. We’ve done a decent job of that the first three games, we just have to continue that mindset.”