Staff
The play started with a groan and ended with a group hug.
In a game that featured just about everything, the Couchiching Lady Raiders scored five times in the bottom of the seventh for a 17-16 win over the visiting Emo Renegades in a Rainy River District Women’s Fastball League makeup game Monday evening.
The winning run was scored in less-than-ordinary fashion to give the Lady Raiders (4-5-1) their first and only lead of the game after entering the seventh trailing 16-12.
Courtney Easton led off with a double and stole third ahead of Stephanie Racine’s walk.
Jen Singleton promptly singled to centre to score both runners and cut the gap in half.
Then with one out, Katie Mowe drew a walk to put runners on first and second.
That set the table for Ashley Morrison, who hammered a two-run triple to deep left to tie the contest and complete a career-best 4-for-5 night with a game-high five RBI.
All Whitney Guimond needed was a well-placed grounder or fly ball to plate Morrison–or so everyone thought.
Instead, Renegades’ pitcher Mykenzie Borger whistled a 2-2 pitch by her on the inside corner.
But Renegades’ catcher Jannelle Andy dropped strike three, allowing Guimond to run to first.
Andy, who paced Emo at the plate with a 3-for-3 night with three RBI and reached base in all six at-bats, decided in a flash not to surrender the base to Guimond and fired the ball to Ashley Barker covering the bag.
That move proved costly, though, as Morrison bolted for home and arrived a step ahead of Barker’s return throw to spark a celebration on the Lady Raiders’ bench.
It was a tough loss for the Renegades (2-8), who now have lost eight-straight games, including three by one run.
With Couchiching ace Syd Jones sidelined by a sprained ankle, Emo jumped on Easton to open up a big first-inning lead.
The righthander threw three bases-loaded walks and only recorded two outs before giving way to Racine, who immediately allowed a two-run double by Erin Oltsher that made it 8-0 for the visitors.
Emo was leading 11-3 when Couchiching scored five runs in the fourth inning–helped by five Renegades’ errors.
Then trailing 16-8, Racine kickstarted a four-run sixth with an inside-the-park homer, drawing her even with Summer Leonard of the Manitou T-Birdies for the league lead with four.
That also tied Leonard’s record of homers in three straight games that she set only the previous week.
Racine earned the pitching while Borger was tagged with the loss.
The only other game Monday, in what is the final week of the first half of the season, saw the third-place Big Grassy Lynx (7-1-2) extend their unbeaten streak to six with a 14-8 win over the last-place Sabaskong Tebinaak (1-8).
Candace Handorgan started the game for the Lynx but decided to step away from the rubber after her teammates gave her a 4-0 lead.
That opened the door for the individual comeback story of the season so far.
Just 17 days after giving birth to her first child, Denlee Gemmell, Nancy Indian took over on the mound in her season debut for Big Grassy.
The lightning-armed hurler looked, for the most part, like she had never been away–keeping Tebinaak at bay over the final six innings while also contributing two hits at the plate.
Jarrah Tom took the loss for Sabaskong, which had forfeited its previous two outings.
The teams now will be split into geographic divisions to play a round-robin schedule to complete the regular season.
The East Division will have six teams and, as agreed upon by all team reps in the pre-season, will see each of those play one additional regular-season game compared to the five-team West Division.
Couchiching and the Fort Frances Angels will join the top two teams in the league so far in the Fort Frances Her-icanes (9-1) and Fort Frances Mud Dogs (8-2) in the East Division, which also will include the fourth-place Red Gut Babes (6-3-1) and the fifth-place Northwest Bay Beavers (5-3-2).
Big Grassy is the top-ranked team in the West Division, which also will include Emo, Sabaskong, Manitou, and the sixth-place Dawson Tigers (5-5).
Monday’s second-half kick-off will see a super showdown as the ‘Canes and Mud Dogs battle at VanJura.
The defending league champs will be looking to avenge their only loss this season–an 8-1 setback to the Mud Dogs back on May 31.
Other East games will see Red Gut at the St. Francis Sports Field against the Angels while Couchiching visits Northwest Bay.
In the West, Big Grassy hosts Dawson while Emo heads to Manitou, with Sabaskong having the bye.
All games start at 7 p.m.
