July 03, 2009 01:24 am
—
By Jon Gremmels
Herald Sports Editor
DAVENPORT — After enduring a rugged stretch of conference games against ranked teams, Clinton was eager for a break Thursday evening against a Davenport West team with an atypical losing record.
The desired results weren’t there, though. And the way the River Queens lost surprised coach Trina Reed, too.
Clinton committed seven errors in the opener, falling to West 7-2, before the Falcons took advantage of Clinton’s fourth error in the second game to start the winning rally in the eighth inning of a 5-4 victory in Game 2 at the West complex. All told, 10 of the Falcons’ 12 runs were unearned.
“What’s ironic about tonight is that defense killed us,” Reed said. “Uusally, it’s a lack of hits; we’ve been thriving all year on pitching and defense.”
She also saw irony in the way her team came out and played.
“We’ve played better against much better teams,” she said. “We came in expecting to win, and we played much too relaxed. I’m disappointed we didn’t make the routine plays tonight.”
West battled back from 3-0 and 4-1 deficits in the second game but pulled even on an unearned run in the fifth inning and won on another unearned run in the eighth.
The game-winning rally in Game 2 started with an error. Shyanne Saladino opened the eighth with a ground ball to the right of shortstop Colleen Ryan. She scooped up the ball but made a hurried throw that was off the mark and went into the dugout, sending Saladino to second base. Sammy Belz, the winning pitcher in each game, sacrificed Saladino to third base, and she scored when Mallory Moore lined a single into left field.
Before Moore stepped to the plate, she discussed the situation with coach Steve Saladino.
“All we told her was to hit it hard and take a good, hard stroke,” said Saladino, who figured Clinton might think the conference would lead to a squeeze play.
West’s rally took Saladino’s daughter off the hook for a loss. She exited after Keirstyn Davis doubled in Amanda Kristensen with no outs in the top of the second inning. Although Belz threw a wild pitch to open her relief appearance, she retired three consecutive batters, holding Davis at third and Clinton to a 3-0 lead.
“Sammy showed great progress and improvement,” Steve Saladino said of the freshman pitcher. “Shyanne was not ready to go for some reason.”
Shyanne Saladino might have put the Falcons much deeper in the hole if not for a fine defensive play by left fielder Alexis Quandt to open the game. Davis smacked a line drive toward the left-field corner, but Quandt made a running catch looking into the sun to rob her of a hit. The importance was magnified when Erica Florence followed with a single, Ryan tripled to score her and then scored on sister Katelyn Ryan’s infield single.
“They played better with the pressure on than we did, so they deserved to win,” Reed said. “We had the momentum, and defense failed on us.”
West pulled within 3-1 when Belz led off the second with a single, was sacrificed to second and scored on a double by Lindsay DeVol. Clinton got an RBI single from Brittney Peska in the third, but West came right back and got within 4-3 in the bottom of the third on a one-out error, an RBI double by Caitlin Nichol (2-for-3), who advanced to third on the throw home, and a squeeze-bunt single by Quandt (3-for-4).
The Falcons tied it in the fifth, helped by two more errors, even though Davis threw out two runners attempting to steal.
Defensive woes were a continuing story from the first game, when a one-out error in the bottom of the first inning led to three unearned runs for the Falcons.
“It’s tough to come back from that,” Reed said.
By the time the game ended, the River Queens had committed at least one error at five of the six infield position, and three different shortstops had an error.
West improved to 5-11 in the Mississippi Athletic Conference, moving ahead of the River Queens in the standings. The Falcons have just one junior and two sophomores on their 13-player roster loaded with eighth-graders and freshmen.
The losses were the 11th and 12th in a row against Mississippi Athletic Conference teams, including three consecutive doubleheader sweeps against ranked teams heading into Thursday’s games. The River Queens (10-17, 3-13 MAC) finish the conference season Monday at Davenport Assumption, which is ranked in Class 3A.
“I don’t take much from these games,” Reed said. “Every loss is a disappointment to me. These girls are a lot better than they think they are.”
GAME 1
Scoring by innings
Clinton 000 100 1 — 2 4 7
Davenport West 310 012 — 7 11 4
Colleen Ryan and Keirstyn Davis; Sammy Belz, Shyanne Saladino (6) and Lindsay DeVol. Two or more hits — West (Belz 2, Mallory Moore 2, DeVol 2). 2B — West (Moore).
GAME 2
Scoring by innings
Clinton 211 000 00 — 4 7 4
West 012 010 01 — 5 11 2
One out when winning run scored
Maddison Daniels and Davis; Saladino, Belz (2) and DeVol. Two or more hits — Clinton (C. Ryan 2); West (Alexis Quandt 3, Caitlin Nichol 2, Aubrey Sennett 2). 2B — Clinton (Davis); West (DeVol, Nichol). 3B — Clinton (C. Ryan). RBIs — Clinton (C. Ryan, Katelyn Ryan, Davis, Brittney Peska); West (DeVol, Nichol, Quandt, Moore).
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.