Staff
The Fort Frances Angels had their halos confiscated and won’t get them back again until the spring.
Stephanie Racine had an inside-the-park home run as part of a 3-for-3, two-RBI night as the No. 5-ranked Couchiching Lady Raiders eased past the No. 11-rated Angels 15-2 last Wednesday (July 27) at the Rodrick and Telford Bruyere Ball Field to end the Fort’s stay in the Rainy River District Women’s Fastball League playoffs.
The Angels, which lost all three meetings with the Lady Raiders this year (one by forfeit), dropped their playoff opener one week earlier 14-7 to the No. 6-seeded Red Gut Babes and needed a victory to extend their time in the double-elimination postseason.
They made a good opening push, with a lead-off walk, a fielders’ choice and an error on second baseman Katie Mowe putting Sara Jackson and McKenna Begin into scoring position with one out.
But Lady Raiders ace Syd Jones turned up the intensity, striking out Courtney Carlson and Caity Visser to escape any scoreboard damage.
That missed opportunity proved costly in the bottom of the frame.
Courtney Easton kicked things off for Couchiching by reaching when a ground ball glanced off Visser’s glove, allowing Easton to reach second.
She then used two wild pitches from Angels starter Rylee Redford to cross the plate with the game’s first run.
Racine, who was at the plate at the time, proceeded to line a missile into left-centre field that found the gap.
Arguably the league’s fastest player was at second before Angels centre fielder Hanna LeDrew even picked up the ball and accelerated around third before easily making it home for a 2-0 advantage.
Visser redeemed herself with a terrific stab of Jen Singleton’s liner on the next at-bat.
Darcy Jones then walked and Mowe was hit by a pitch, with both moving into scoring position eventually with two out.
The pitcher then became her own best friend, as Syd Jones banged a single up the middle to cash in both runners and then scored herself on Whitney Guimond’s single to right as the Lady Raiders batted around to build a 5-0 lead.
Couchiching then did themselves one better in the second in terms of plate appearances, sending 10 batters to the dish and collecting another five runs.
Redford walked the bases loaded to start the inning before Darcy Jones came through with a two-run single.
Jones then ignited a delayed double steal which allowed Singleton to dash home when Jackson threw down to second by order of coach Paul Visser.
Erika Jourdain (2-for-4, two RBI) compounded the Angels’ misery when she proceeded to rip the ball up the middle for an RBI single to score Jones.
Syd Jones (2-for-4, team-leading three RBI) capped the onslaught with a one-out single to plate Jourdain for a 10-0 lead.
Fort Frances made some noise in the third, most of it coming from the echo of the aluminum bat of Redford when she stepped into a Jones offering for a soaring one-out triple.
After Jackson was robbed by Racine on a liner to short, Begin tagged Jones for an RBI single and advanced to third on Carlson’s single.
But Visser was then victimized on one of Jones’ nine strikeouts to go along with just one walk in her five-hit complete-game performance.
The Lady Raiders picked up two more runs in the third.
Racine singled and went all the way to third when Begin’s toss from short on a Singleton grounder pulled first baseman Reece McQuaker off the bag.
Singleton stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch that brought home Racine and then scored on Jourdain’s sacrifice fly to put the home side up 12-1.
Meanwhile, Syd Jones settled into a groove on the hill, retiring eight Angel hitters in a row, including consecutive three-up, three-down innings in the fourth and fifth.
In the bottom of the fourth, Guimond led off by reaching on an error to McQuaker, who had the ball go off her glove while moving back on a pop-up.
Guimond swiped second on a passed ball and moved to third on a Racine single.
Natasha Bryant, pinch-hitting for Singleton, then grounded to Visser at short.
Visser’s throw forced McQuaker to come off the base again and allowed Guimond to scamper home.
Carlson managed a one-out single in the sixth for the Fort and scored on McQuaker’s two-out single to left to trim the lead slightly to 13-2.
Couchiching got that one back and another one in the bottom of the frame.
Easton singled to right and moved up to second when Sydney Beck didn’t cleanly field the ball.
The Lady Raiders catcher took third on a wild pitch and scored on Racine’s RBI groundout to second.
Bryant then reached on another throwing error by Visser, stole second, took third on a passed ball and scored when Redford had trouble with Jourdain’s chopper back to the mound that went off her glove on the backhand side and rolled away.
Redford surrendered 11 hits on the night, walking five and fanning six as the Fort ended the year on a 14-game losing streak after starting a promising 2-2.
Couchiching will now face the top-rated Fort Frances Her-icanes tonight at VanJura Park at 7 p.m. in second-round Losers’ Side play.
The ‘Canes, who found themselves having to take the scenic route to the league final after falling 14-11 in their playoff opener to the No. 8-ranked Emo Renegades, had the easiest night of anybody with a forfeit win over the No. 10-seeded Big Island Wildcats.
Big Island never played an inning of the postseason, also forfeiting their playoff opener to the No. 7-ranked Dawson Tigers the previous week.
As for the Tigers, they were upset 13-8 by the No. 9-rated Sabaskong Tebinaak in Pinewood last Wednesday to see their postseason go up in smoke.
Dawson was tops in the West Region in the second half with a 4-1 record and seemed to be peaking at the right time.
But the Tigers were tripped up 10-8 by the No. 2-rated Fort Frances Mud Dogs on July 25 to put their backs to the wall before Tebinaak shoved them right through it.
Sabaskong was unsuccessful in both regular-season meetings with Dawson, but proved in a 7-6 loss to the Tigers to end the regular season that they could wind up being a headache for their foes.
Tebinaak starter Candy Kelly exacerbated that headache for the Tigers, keeping Dawson’s heavy hitters mostly under control while her team battled its way to the victory over Tigers ace Alicia Anderson.
Sabaskong will try and keep its longshot dream alive tonight when it travels to the home park of the defending league champion and No. 3-ranked Northwest Bay Beavers, with the victor taking on whomever prevails between the ‘Canes and Lady Raiders in a Losers’ Side third-round clash on Monday at 6:30 p.m.
The Beavers chewed their way through the No. 12-rated Manitou T-Birdies 29-13 in Northwest Bay last Wednesday.
The loss brought an end to a difficult 2016 campaign for the former Manitou Blaze, who went 0-16 in the regular season and then fell 18-3 to Couchiching in their playoff opener.
Darcy Smith was credited with the win on the hill for Northwest Bay, which beat Manitou 21-6 in their only regular-season encounter.
Bev Cochrane took the loss for the T-Birdies, whose highlight of the season was a breakout campaign by all-star Summer Leonard, who had six home runs to tie Northwest Bay’s Shae Smith for the league lead.
In a Winners’ Side semifinal matchup last night, the Mud Dogs were home at St. Francis Sports Field against Red Gut for a special Tuesday evening game, with the score unavailable at press time.
The survivor head to the Winners’ Side final on Monday at 6:30 p.m. against the winner of tonight’s other game between visiting Emo and the No. 4-ranked host Big Grassy Lynx, which edged Couchiching 8-7 at home on July 25 to kick off its postseason.
It will be the rubber match of what has been an interesting season series to this point, with Big Grassy blasting Emo 20-4 in their first meeting before the Renegades paid them back with a 20-0 whitewashing in the second.
