Lady Tigers softball takes two from GRHS

But first things first.

Rock Springs got on the board in the Game 1 second inning when freshman catcher Tarin Anderson smashed a home run over the left center fence. Then in the third inning sophomore Rilynn Wester reached second after a Green River throwing error. Sophomore left fielder Rachel Wallendorf sacrifice bunted Wester to third. Marley Adams was safe at first and then stretched her single into a two-bagger as the Green River throw home failed to keep Wester from scoring. Sophomore second baseman Makyla Sweeney was hit by a pitch. Adams stole third and then scored off a fielder’s choice hit, courtesy of Lady Tiger senior pitcher Payten Soltis, and Sweeney creating a distraction for the home team by being thrown out at third. Rock Springs settled for a 3-0 advantage.

The Lady Tiger batters upped their lead to 4-0 early in their half of the fourth inning when sophomore Ruby Florencio belted a double to deep left field and then scored off a Wester bunt single. Wester was safe at first as a result of another Green River throwing error. Wallendorf walked and Adams was safe at first when she beat out the throw on a bunt single. Sweeney belted a bases-clearing double to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead. Sweeney later scored to give the Lady Tigers an 8-0 advantage and clear momentum heading into the later innings.

From that point on it was simply a matter of negotiating what the final score would be. Soltis and Florencio both had two-run homers in the Rock Springs half of the seventh to end any remote hopes the Wolves may have had of a late comeback.

Pitching & defenseMeanwhile, the Rock Springs defense was tight and crisp. A play made by sophomore shortstop Taylor Flores when she thrust her glove between the ball and the dirt playing surface was particularly scenic. Green River deep fly balls routinely ended up in the Lady Tiger outfielders’ gloves. Furthermore, the Lady Tiger infield was a collection of human vacuum cleaners as one Green River hit after another wound up in different infielders’ gloves, with the thrown balls ending up in a similar receptacle at first base. Lady Tiger junior first baseman Kyndall Turnwall let nothing get by her, even when it took a bit of extra effort sometimes to glove a few off-line throws.

In addition, Soltis earned credit for some crisp pitching to aid the Lady Tiger cause. Soltis carried a no-hitter into the last third of the Green River fourth inning. “Peyten was very focused,” Lady Tigers coach Annette Ice said. “She stayed with the game plan and stayed focused.”

Soltis was unfazed by the hour-late Game 1 start, following a long junior varsity game won by Rock Springs 21-10. Soltis similarly refused to be distracted by the melodramatic batting stances taken by several Green River batters at the plate. Unofficially, Soltis recorded eight strike outs, in addition to continually frustrating Green River batters by keeping the hit balls playable.

For its part, Green River could not get anything started with less than two outs. The Wolves had three straight innings—the fourth, fifth, and sixth—where they recorded two-out singles which proved to be too little, too late. The Lady Wolves avoided the shutout with a run in the seventh inning.

The Rock Springs Lady Tigers improved their conference record to 7-1 with the Game 1 victory. “Our batters were very skilled, very focused at the plate,” Ice said. “As a result, we got some good bombs.”

Necessary roughnessThis state of affairs continued into the start of Game 2 between the Lady Tigers and the Lady Wolves, or so it seemed at first. Rock Springs moved out to a first inning 4-0 lead over Green River. Wester got things started for the Lady Tigers with a lead-off triple resulting from some Wolves defensive miscalculations. Junior Hadlee Miller was safe at first on a Green River overthrow and then took second on a steal. Wester scored for a 1-0 Rock Springs advantage. Anderson singled to right field, pushing Miller across the plate. Using the bunt as a weapon, Flores was safe at first. Florencio’s double pushed Anderson and Flores home.

Green River pushed across a run in their half of the first, however, signaling that this would not be a game where the Lady Wolves would go quietly. Nevertheless, the Lady Tigers moved out to a 6-1 lead, with the big hit coming from the bat of Anderson on a ground rule double that sent Miller home for her second score of the game. After being hit by a pitch and moving to third on Miller’s strike, Sweeney scored on a catcher pickoff overthrow to third. Later, Florencio slammed another home run to make the score 10-5 in favor of the Lady Tigers in the Rock Springs fourth. Then, with freshmen PJ Thomison and Paige Tongate on base, Wester drilled a home run of her own over the deep left field fence, providing the Lady Tigers with a seemingly definitive 13-5 lead.

The Lady Wolves fought back, however. Both teams made more than their share of fielding miscues, but the Lady Tigers’ errors on defense were particularly damaging. Dropped balls and hits that went through players’ legs helped Green River get back in the game during the fourth and fifth innings.

As for the reason why Games 1 & 2 were so different for the Lady Tigers, Ice chalked it up to a necessary learning experience for some of the younger players on her team. “We had some different players in the second game, playing different positions,” Ice said. “We wanted to give some of our younger players some game experience, some varsity experience.”

What might have transpired in the final two innings, for good or ill, for either the Lady Tigers or the Lady Wolves, was cut short by the bell, so to speak. Green River proved it was a much more offensively-talented team in the second game, while Rock Springs proved it could take a hit and still win game-ugly, if necessary.