Staff
Anybody intent on dethroning the Fort Frances Her-icanes will have to come onto the defending champion’s turf to do so.
Marissa Kerry threw five shutout innings of relief as the ‘Canes held off the Couchiching Lady Raiders 9-6 last night in Rainy River District Women’s Fastball League East Division play at the Rodrick and Telford Bruyere Ball Field in Couchiching.
The seventh consecutive win for the Fort (3-0 in the East, 12-1 overall) clinches first place in the regular season and assured the red-and-black home field advantage throughout the playoffs, which get underway in just under three weeks.
Their 24 points puts them three ahead of the Big Grassy Lynx (2-0-1 in the West, 9-1-3), with the Lynx only having one game remaining while the ‘Canes have two due to the fact the East has one more team than the West for the season’s second-half round-robin format.
Laureen Hill started for the Fort, but came out after two innings with the ‘Canes up 7-6.
Kerry (2-0), in her second game in the league, made it two wins in two appearances after triumphing in her debut on Monday against the Northwest Bay Beavers.
Stephanie Racine (2-2) pitched well in the absence of ace Syd Jones, giving up just two runs in the final five frames, but still took the loss as the seventh-place Lady Raiders (1-2, 5-7-1) fell for the second straight outing.
Big Grassy survived a 19-16 shootout against last-place Sabaskong Tebinaak (0-2, 1-12) to run its unbeaten string to nine games.
Candace Handorgan (8-0-2) did just enough to preserve her status as one of the last two unbeaten pitchers in the league with a minimum five decisions (Hill, 6-0).
Candi Kelly dropped to 0-3 this season on the mound for Sabaskong, which is spiralling downward with what is now a nine-game losing skid.
Other East games last night saw a late-arriving pitcher make a big difference as the Red Gut Babes rallied from a three-run deficit to top the Fort Frances Mud Dogs 12-6 and run their unbeaten streak to nine while passing the Mud Dogs for third overall.
Reigning league MVP Tracy Morningstar (4-0) was in the wrong place at the wrong time as she mistakenly went to the Babes’ home diamond for the game rather than St. Francis Sports Field.
She arrived at St. Francis Sports Field to find Red Gut down 5-2 after two innings, despite some solid pitching from starter Alyssa Windego.
Morningstar slammed the door shut once she got into the game, throwing four spotless innings before the Mud Dogs (1-2, 9-4) scratched out a late run in the seventh.
By then, Red Gut (3-0, 9-3-1) has strung together 10 consecutive runs against Rachelle Yeo (8-4) and her defensive mates, including a six-run fifth inning that put the Babes up 9-5.
Red Gut put the game away when Alyssa Windego and Taylor Windego in the sixth and seventh, respectively, drilled singles that eluded the Mud Dogs’ centre fielder for a pair of errors that gave each of them enough time to rocket around the bases and score.
Fifth-place Northwest Bay (1-2, 6-5-2) had to take it to the limit to sneak past the ninth-place Fort Frances Angels 6-5.
Beavers starter Darcy Smith (6-5-2) went pitch for pitch against Rylee Redford (2-5) as the Beavers ended a two-game slide while handing the Angels (0-3, 3-10) their third setback in a row.
The other game out in the West saw the resurgent sixth-place Dawson Tigers (1-0-1, 6-5-1) easily cruise by the 10th-place Manitou T-Birdies (0-3, 2-11) by a count of 16-2.
Alicia Anderson (3-4-1) was fantastic on the mound for the Tigers, who have turned things around after a 1-5 start to go unbeaten in their last six.
Angel Medicine (0-1) put in a good showing in her first career appearance as a pitcher for the T-Birdies, who have lost nine straight.
The eighth-place Emo Renegades (2-0, 4-8) had the bye.
Action resumes on Monday at 7 p.m. with five games, including two in the Fort.
The ‘Canes and Angels will meet at St. Francis, as will Couchiching and the host Mud Dogs.
Elsewhere in the East, Red Gut heads north of Devlin to challenge Northwest Bay.
West Division games will see Dawson steamroll into Emo, while Manitou visits Sabaskong.
Big Grassy will have the bye.
