Staff
One does not become champion by giving up without a fight.
Staring an eight-run deficit in the face against a team on a nine-game winning streak, the Northwest Bay Beavers hung tough and eventually pulled out a walk-off 10-9 victory over the Fort Frances Her-icanes last night in Rainy River District Women’s Fastball League action in Northwest Bay.
Fort third baseman Dana Ward, an all-star selection earlier in the day but who was uncharacteristically shaky with three errors on the night while using a borrowed glove, had fellow all-star Shae Smith’s bases-loaded grounder on a 2-2 pitch go right under her mitt and through her feet into left field to allow Trish Smith to dash home for the game-winner.
Righthander Tracy Morningstar (10-2) and the ’Canes (3-1 in the second half, 13-2 overall) needed a shutdown seventh, but wound up never getting an out as the Beavers (3-1, 10-5) completed the comeback.
Teresa Smith walked and Connie Smith was hit by a pitch before Trish Smith recorded her only hit of the night at the right time with a solid single to centre to bring home one run.
Morningstar then issued a free pass to Joyce Smith to fill the sacks and then another to Val Smith to surrender the tying run before the Beavers won it with the next at-bat.
The matchup between the defending champion Beavers and the first-place Her-icanes was a tale of two games.
Trailing 9-1 heading to the bottom of the fifth, Northwest Bay sprang to life with five runs against the league’s winningest pitcher so far this year in Morningstar.
Val Smith and and Shae Smith led off the inning by drawing four-pitch walks.
Young substitute Isabel Smith then arced a two-run single that dropped just inside the right field line to score both runners.
Lori Smith was then hit by a pitch and Darcy Smith scorched an RBI single up the middle to bring in Isabel Smith to trim the lead to 9-4.
With two out, Connie Smith (2-for-3, team-high three RBI) drove in two more with a single that just got under the glove of Laureen Hill at shortstop as she ranged to her left to try and make the play.
In the sixth, Val Smith cranked a leadoff double over the head of Andrea Sweigard in left.
Morningstar struck out the next two hitters and eventually the side, but allowed the Beavers base runner to score on a wild pitch while facing Lori Smith to make it 9-7.
The ’Canes, who were held to just three hits by Darcy Smith (9-5) from the fourth inning on, got one-out singles from Hill and Caylee Woolsey (both with two hits in the game) but left them where they stood when Taylor Pagee struck out and Natalie Dal (2-for-3, team-leading three RBI) grounded out to the mound.
Fort Frances built its lead with an RBI infield hit by Dal in the first before cashing in five times in a mistake-filled third for the host team.
The Beavers had four errors in the inning, starting with Lana Smith’s fumbled pickup of Jess Woodgate’s single to right that gave Ward time to race home from second.
Connie Smith then couldn’t pick up Stacy Patey’s grounder to third and Hill walked to load the bases.
With Woolsey up, Darcy Smith uncorked a wild pitch and then dropped Shae Smith’s relay throw from the backstop as Woodgate touched home and then tumbled spectacularly to the ground for a 3-0 edge.
Woolsey wound up getting on when Connie Smith’s high throw to first on another grounder skipped off of Joyce Smith’s glove to let Patey and Hill score.
Dal then beat out her second infield hit of the night as Woolsey motored in to put the ’Canes up 6-0.
RBI groundouts in the fourth by Woodgate and Patey bumped the lead up to 8-0 before the Beavers broke through in the back half of the inning kickstarted by, of all things, a strikeout.
Teresa Smith made it to first when Woodgate, who took over for Charity McMahon behind the plate to start the inning, couldn’t cleanly catch and then pick up the ball on strike three while battling a setting sun that made life miserable for catchers and hitters for most of the evening.
After two wild pitches moved her to third, Smith came in on Connie Smith’s RBI single.
The Fort got that one back in the fifth when Woolsey came home on Dal’s RBI groundout.
Darcy Smith went the distance to pick up the win, allowing nine hits while walking just one and striking out five.
Morningstar lost for the first time in eight decisions, giving up eight hits while walking four and fanning eight.
The ’Canes loss let the Fort Frances Mud Dogs (2-2, 12-3) creep a little closer to top spot, as they moved within two points of the leaders with a 7-5 win over the 11th-place Fort Frances Angels (0-4, 2-13) at VanJura Park.
Rachelle Yeo (6-3) got the win on the hill over Rylee Redford (2-4) in a good pitching duel between two more players headed to the all-star game on July 18 in Barwick.
The Mud Dogs have now won two in a row, while the Angels are mired in an 11-game losing streak.
Another East Division contest to settle fifth place between the Couchiching Lady Raiders (9-5) and the Red Gut Babes (9-5) was postponed to July 13 due to a funeral being held on the Red Gut reserve yesterday.
In the West Division, the third-place Big Grassy Lynx (3-0, 10-4) stayed perfect in the second half with a dominant 14-2 win over the last-place Manitou T-Birdies (0-4, 0-15) in Big Grassy.
Nancy Indian (8-3) took full advantage of the Lynx’s game on Monday being postponed, which gave her time to rest her aching shoulder that she couldn’t even raise up earlier this week and put on a masterful performance against the T-Birdies and losing starter Bev Cochrane (0-7) in supplying Big Grassy its fourth consecutive win.
In the biggest offensive explosion of the night, the seventh-place Dawson Tigers (3-1, 8-7) moved above .500 for the first time this season with a 27-11 pounding of the Big Island Wildcats (0-3, 4-10) in Big Island.
Laurie Fairfield drilled her first homer of the season for the Tigers to help Alicia Anderson (6-2) nail down Dawson’s second win in a row.
Tina Jack replied with her second fence rocket of the campaign for 10th-place Big Island, which has dropped eight straight, while Candace Handorgan (4-9) took the loss.
Finally, the ninth-place Sabaskong Tebinaak (2-0, 5-8) received strong pitching from the tandem of Devyn Kelly and Candy Kelly (2-0) to down the visiting eighth-place Emo Renegades (2-2, 6-9) by a count of 9-7.
Emo led 6-0 at one point, but Sabaskong used one big inning against Renegades starter Mykenzie Borger (4-5) to rally to their third win in their past four outings while Emo had its two-game winning roll stopped.
Action resumes on Monday at 7 p.m. with the final six regularly-scheduled regular-season games, although there will be a makeup date on July 13.
The ’Canes will host Red Gut at VanJura Park, while Couchiching will head to St. Francis Sports Field to play the Angels and the Mud Dogs journey to Northwest Bay to face the Beavers in the East Division.
Out in the West, Big Island will make the trip to Manitou, while Dawson visits Sabaskong and Emo is at home to Big Grassy.
