By Ted Waddell
JEFFERSONVILLE — Wednesday afternoon’s Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) Division IV softball game between the home team Lady Bulldogs of Sullivan West and the James I. O’Neill Lady Raiders took a bit longer to finish.
But the Lady Bulldogs didn’t mind playing an extra inning as they walked off the field with a 2-1 victory.
The game was a real pitching duel, as SW’s Sarah Lander squared off against O’Neill’s Sam Phillips.
In the bottom of the first, Lindsey Bauer led off with a triple. Moments later, she scored on a sacrifice fly to deep center field by Kristen Niemann to give SW (3-4, 2-1 Division IV) a 1-0 lead.
The Lady Raiders’ Rachel Abrams crossed the plate on a wild pitch in the top of the seventh to tie it up at 1-1.
In the top of the eighth, O’Neill (4-7, 2-2 Division IV) loaded the bases, but wasn’t able to capitalize on the golden opportunity.
In the bottom of the eighth, SW’s Colleen Chudik found herself on second base as a courtesy runner in place of Niemann.
Stephanie Meyer nailed a hard shot to third. But the Lady Raiders’ third baseman missed the tag on Chudik and then overthrew to first base.
The ball landed in dead ball territory, so the umpires ruled it was an automatic extra base for Chudik.
In this case, the extra base was home plate and, in the blink of an eye, the game was over.
“It was a well-played game on both sides,” O’Neill Coach Amanda Caldwell said. “Both teams fought hard, but a few errors gave up the runs and cost us the game.”
SW Coach Mike Ellmauer noted that both teams had some good defensive plays and solid pitching.
“The O’Neill pitcher was very good, and Sarah [Lander] is getting into her own… but we’ve got to put a couple more hits together,” he said.
Ellmauer said the Lady Bulldogs spend time in practice working on plays at home plate, moves that are designed to strike fear into the opposition as senior catcher Niemann faces them down and tags them out when they try to score.
“We’ve got a good backstop in Kristen, she’s fearless,” he said.
“Talk about a million dollar infield at the high school level, and all our outfielders have arms this year,” Ellmauer added.
“Cara [Davies] is a gazelle in the outfield, we call her Willie Mays for short,” he said.