Staff
Sunday saw the season premiere of HBO’s wildly-popular “Game of Thrones.”
The following night, the Fort Frances Her-icanes starred in “Game of Thrown Away.”
It was not the ideal finish to the regular season for the defending champs, who committed a whopping 13 errors in a 17-7 loss to the host Red Gut Babes in Rainy River District Women’s Fastball League East Division action.
The ‘Canes (13-2 overall) already had first place for the regular season locked up but wanted to send a message to the second-place Babes (11-3-1), who the Fort beat in last year’s final, with the playoffs set to start next week.
Instead, a bevy of blunders–combined with starting pitcher Marissa Kerry’s lack of accuracy–extended Red Gut’s unbeaten string to 11 as they get ready to try and make their fifth-straight appearance in the league final and collect their third title.
Kerry walked 10 batters and had five wild pitches as she struggled to find the mark in her four-plus innings of work.
Her defence didn’t give the teen much help, either, with all but two of Red Gut’s runs being unearned.
The Babes trailed 1-0 early, but then took the lead with a three-run second keyed by Taylor Windego’s two-run single to centre after Kerry had walked the bases full.
Four more runs in the third on a trio of Fort miscues boosted the lead to 7-1.
Caylee Woolsey cut into the lead with a towering double to the gap that should have scored two in the top of the fourth.
But on a rare night where the ‘Canes were off their game, Andrea Sweigard missed the plate and was tagged out by Babes’ catcher Kayla Windigo trying to scramble back.
With Red Gut up 9-3, the ‘Canes erupted for four runs in the fifth off Babes’ starter Tracy Morningstar, the league’s reigning MVP.
But the euphoria was short-lived as Kerry walked the first three batters to start the bottom half.
Windego then cranked a two-run double to cash in Mel Jones and Gail Windego before the mistakes started piling up again for the ‘Canes.
Back-to-back-to-back errors by shortstop Laureen Hill and catcher Charity McMahon, coupled with a wild pitch by Kerry, led to three more runs coming in for a 15-7 lead.
It also spelled the end of Kerry’s night on the rubber as Hill took over for the final two innings.
In other East Division play Monday night, it took a late-night ruling by league president Stacy Patey to finally confirm a 15-9 win for the Couchiching Lady Raiders over the Fort Frances Angels.
That was the score after six innings, but the Angels exploded for 11 runs in the top of the seventh to lead 20-15 when the umpire called the game for having exceeded the two-hour time limit,
But by league rule, any game having to be called after five innings reverts back to the score at the end of the last completed inning.
That made winners out of pitcher Jen Singleton and the seventh-place Lady Raiders (7-7-1).
Rylee Redford took the loss for the ninth-place Angels (3-12).
As well, the Northwest Bay Beavers used Shae Smith’s fourth homer, and another from Lori Smith, to beat the Fort Frances Mud Dogs 16-11.
Darcy Smith took the win for the fifth-place Beavers (7-6-2) while Rachelle Yeo was tagged with the loss for the fourth-place Mud Dogs (9-6).
The only game that took place in the West Division on Monday saw the sixth-place Dawson Tigers hang on to beat the last-place Sabaskong Tebinaak 11-10.
Charmaine Hunter went deep for the Tigers (7-6-1), who got a good outing on the rubber from Alicia Anderson.
Candi Kelly suffered the loss for Sabaskong (2-12).
Tebinaak, meanwhile, lost a 10th-place tie-breaker with the Manitou T-Birdies (2-12).
The teams split their season series 1-1 but the T-Birdies outscored Sabaskong 26-23 to get the nod.
The eighth-place Emo Renegades (6-8) headed into the playoffs the easy way by getting a forfeit win over the third-place Big Grassy Lynx (9-2-3).
The top five teams in the league will have a bye through Monday’s opening round of the double-elimination playoffs.
Emo will host the Angels, with the winner facing the ‘Canes next Wednesday at VanJura.
Manitou travels to Couchiching to see who will head to Red Gut.
Dawson welcomes Sabaskong to its home park in Pinewood, with the winner earning a date against Big Grassy two nights later.
In related news, the league will hold its annual all-star game tonight at 7 p.m. at Manitou, with Patey and Windigo acting as team captains.
