By Jerry Michalsky
The Port Arthur News
May 17, 2008 01:41 am
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Pearland - Being in the playoffs year after year played in the favor of Nederland Friday night.
Tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, the Bulldogs got a sacrifice fly to left field by Tarler Trojcak to score Jordan Bodin with the winning run to give Nederland a 2-1 victory over Huntsville in game one of their Region III Class 4-A semifinal series at Dawson high school.
Nederland (26-8-1), will look to sweep the series today at 5 p.m. when both teams return to Dawson. If Huntsville can win game two, then a third and final game will be played thirty minutes after. The winner will get Barbers Hill who defeated Montgomery 6-0 to sweep their semifinal series 2-0.
The Bulldogs grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning thanks to some shaky defense by Huntsville.
Ashleigh Kuhn started the inning off with a single. Huntsville Catcher Nena Gibson then threw into right field trying to pickoff Kuhn from first. Layken Richard then bunted over Kuhn to third base with two outs. Lindsey Rossi then hit a sharp grounder to shortstop that could not be fielded, allowing Kuhn to score to make it 1-0 heading into the seventh inning.
Taking her 42 -inning scoreless streak into the seventh, you figured Caitlin Austin, who had allowed only hit to this point, would make easy work of the Hornets. After retiring the first two Huntsville hitters, Tayler Gray laced a double to center field to keep the inning alive. Michelle McGill then followed with another rope to center field which scored Gray to tie things up at 1 apiece.
Austin then retired Shelby Smith with a grounder to second to set up the winning inning.
“There is a reason they are in the fourth round of the playoffs”, said Nederland head coach Sissy Yeaman of Huntsville. "They are a talented team over there and we know they are not going to quit.
Jordan Bodin lead off the bottom of the seventh inning for Nederland with a single off of Smith. Bodin took second on a passed ball by Gibson. Jordan Hightower followed with a sharp hit grounder to short stop that went past Sarah Vaughn into left field and allowed Bodin to take third. Trojcak then came to the plate and lifted a fly ball to left which was plenty deep to allow Bodin to score and give the Bulldogs a 1-0 series advantage.
“After they tied things up, we just talked about getting a run anyway we could”, said Yeaman. “These girls have done that all season long and I knew they would come through again.
“We have battled though a lot of adversity this season and I think tonight that gave us an advantage”, added Yeaman.
Coming into the contest, Nederland starting pitcher Austin had thrown 36 consecutive scoreless innings while allowing only one run in five playoff games. The Lady Hornets countered with their ace in Smith who shutout always tough Brenham last Thursday night 2-0 in a one game winner- take-all.
Both pitchers came out on fire, especially Austin, who struck out seven of the first nine Huntsville hitters she faced. The only blemish for Austin early on was in the top of the first inning. Austin set down the first two Hornet hitters before Gibson lined a gapper to left center field for a two out double.
Austin got out of the inning by coming back and striking out Gray to retire Huntsville.
Smith retired the first seven Nederland hitters to start the game before Katelyn Worsham lined a single up the middle for the first Bulldog base runner. Krista Meyer then popped up to the catcher attempting to move Worsham into scoring position for the second out of the inning. Kuhn then singled up the middle off of Smith to put runners at first and second with two outs.
Smith then got out of the inning by retiring Richard on a liner to short stop to keep the game scoreless.
Austin, who saw her scoreless inning streak come to an end at 42 innings, improved to 19-5 on the season. Austin finished with 11 strikeouts while walking only one. Kuhn lead the Bulldogs at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance.
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