Austin, Lady Dogs stifle Foster

By Cody Pastorella
The Port Arthur News

May 09, 2008 12:07 am

— NEW CANEY — Nederland's Caitlin Austin was not going to be denied in Thursday night's Game 1 matchup with Richmond Foster, a team that came into the contest with a 26-2 record and having beat the Lady Dogs in the third round of the Class 4A softball playoffs a year ago.
Foster won that series in two games with scores of 1-0 and 2-1.
It does not seem as if the Lady Dogs are willing to let that happen this year, however, as Austin dusted 10 Foster batters while surrendering just one hit enroute to Nederland's 2-0 win over the Lady Falcons.
With the win, Nederland improves to 24-8-1 on the season and will be back in action at 7 tonight in New Caney for Game 2. If it is necessary, Game 3 will be Saturday in the same location.
The Lady Dogs' two runs hardly clarifies the level of beating that Foster received. If it were not for a few base running mistakes from Nederland, the score very well could have been 10-0.
"We try not to harp on the negative at this point," said Nederland head coach Sissy Yeaman whose team is just one win away from reaching the fourth round. "We will take a win any way we can get it. I was just happy that we came out swinging, got some hits and pushed those runs across the plate. We definitely made some big mistakes that probably cost us a few more runs, but I am happy with our overall performance."
The Lady Dogs, who needed extra innings to win back-to-back 1-0 games on Saturday, pounded on Keely Shuler Thursday night for six hits and two runs. Shuler managed to strike out six Lady Dogs in the loss. But for a pitcher used to dominating Nederland hit her like a pinata.
Both of the Lady Dogs runs came in the third inning when Katelyn Worsham and Ashliegh Kuhn each scored.
It was an inning that could have been a lot worse for Shuler, as a sacrifice bunt flared off the bat of Nederland's Krista Mayer and ended in a double play.
The ball popped up to Foster's third baseman, who made the catch and flung the ball to second base to put out Tayler Trojcak. Trojcak walked to lead off the inning.
Worsham, who reached first base on a fielder's choice, was still at first after the double play.
After the failed bunt, Kuhn doubled to left to bring in Worsham for a 1-0 lead.
Then Kuhn scored from second off a single from Layken Richard to give the Lady Dogs a 2-0 advantage.
Nederland left two runners on base that inning and left seven on base altogether.
In the second inning, Jordan Hightower, who went 2-for-3 with two doubles in the contest, picked up the Lady Dogs' first hit.
When trying to leg her double into a triple, however, Hightower stumbled and was tagged out.
In the sixth inning, Hightower doubled again. This time she led the inning off with the hit and then reached third after a sacrifice fly from Trojcak.
With one out and Hightower at third base, Worsham hit a sharp, one-hopper to third base. Instead of finding left field, the ball was snagged and left Hightower on an island in between third and home.
"Hopefully we will come out tomorrow and play with the same kind of intensity," Yeaman said. "Hopefully we come out and keep swinging the bats like we did tonight. It was really nice to get those runs early. It was nice to see us showing patience at the plate, but we're going to have cut down on the mental mistakes.
"We're going to have to cut out the base running mistakes because we know we're going to see a different team tomorrow night."
Yeaman added, saying that she felt Foster did not pitch, hit or play defense as well as it usually does.
"I expect them to play a lot better, so we're going to have to be focused and we're going to have to be better. I told the girls this isn't finished. I told them one game doesn't mean anything if it doesn't lead to two games."
Austin allowed just three Lady Falcons to reach base. Of those three, two were left stranded.
In the sixth inning, Foster seemed to have its best scoring opportunity, as Tiffany Rodriguez reached first after Kuhn and Worsham collided on the a fly ball at second base.
Austin, however, induced back-to-back fly balls for the first two outs and then a liner straight to Kuhn at shortstop got the third out.
Austin struck out Foster's No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters in order in the seventh to end the game.
Austin threw 15 pitches in the inning. Of her 10 strikeouts, she struck out the heart of the order seven times and even prompted Foster to replace its four-hole hitter Haley Starkey with Marquie Krpec for the final at-bat of the game.
"She had a really good ball game," Yeaman said of Austin who acted as if her performance was nothing new.
But for someone who has an ERA diving from 0.50 after Thursday's shutout, and for someone who has 250 Ks on the year, what else would Yeaman expect from her ace?
With the win, Austin improves to 17-5 on the season.