IT IS NOW A BEST OF THREE
by Brianne Henry,
Two games have been played in the semifinal series against Cassadaigua, and both teams have picked up a victory. Cassadaigua’s game 2 win was a lot more convincing, but margins only matter in the business world, and not on the baseball diamond. This turns this series to a best of three, and while the Dagans have a slight amount of momentum in the series, all it takes is one big inning by the sky blue to change that.
The first game saw Courtney Duvall look dominant early on, allowing only one hit through five innings. She needed to be, as the bats only mustered one run themselves over that stretch before they thankfully got a two-run dinger from Rachel Carey in the 6th inning to go up 3-0. Sadly, that was short lived as Duvall was not as successful the third time she went through the Fillies lineup, and the pink were able to tie the game in the 7th. Duvall stayed in to pitch the 8th inning, and the Rockets were able to go back in front in the bottom of that inning on a sac fly from Lexi Alcorn, scoring Hannah Bates. That enabled Duvall to be the winning pitcher. Shannon Spencer pitched a perfect ninth to get the save.
All of that momentum was wasted in game two. The achilles heel of pitcher Breanne Burks in the World Baseball Classic, since her team debut in 38, has been inconsistency. As good as she looks most of the time, there always seems to be a stinker every now and then. You’d like that they did not come at a time like this, but the Dagans had their way with her through three innings, scoring two in the 1st, one in the 2nd, and three in the 3rd, to go up 6-0 and end her day. In relief, Newmanistan put in Hannah Lee, the young phenom who stepped up in Game 2 against the Ponies after Jennifer Hughes was ejected after thirteen pitches. Lee would completely shut Cassadaigua down, throwing six scoreless, and only allowing three hits. Unfortunately, Cassadaigua’s Julie Marrone was unhittable. Well, the Rockets did get two hits, but it just seemed like they didn’t get any.
Newmanistan turns to Jessica Gray for game 3, and some will say that she has been like Burks in her Classic career. She’s normally good, but will simply have those tough starts scattered in between. Recently, she has pitched very well so hopefully that can continue and that the powers that be don’t decide it’s time for the bad start. Jennifer Hughes will pitch game 4. Perhaps Newmanistan will get two wins and the next time you here from me will be talking about the championship. A possibility also exists that Cassadaigua does that, leaving us to talk about the third place series (which by the way, would not be as exciting to us this year as it was last year). However, you have the feeling that this is a five-gamer.