Card softball crew end season with loss

Its over for the Medical Lake softball team after losing back-to-back games against Freeman last week.

The Scotties (7-5, 14-7) traveled to Medical Lake on Tuesday, May 7, for the final game of the regular season, downing the Card girls 13-6.

Both teams came out hitting in the first inning with the Cards taking a 2-1 lead going into a scoreless second, and by the top of the fifth the Cards had a three-run lead.

But by then the Scotties bats had warmed up, knocking in five runs off starting pitcher Suzanne Shores to take a 9-6 lead. The Scotties brought in two more runners in the sixth and seventh innings.

Allison Duncan went 3 for 3 including a double and scored twice. Haley Musser was 1 for 3, with two RBIs, making it around the diamond twice, including once on a home run. Kaylee Thompson scored once, going 1 for 3 including a double and an RBI.

Shores pitched a complete game, throwing 152 pitches with nine strikeouts.

The fifth-seeded Medical Lake softball crew ended their 2019 season in a loser-out post-season loss at Freeman on Thursday, May 9.

But they didn’t go quietly.

It was a nail-biter of a game in which the lead changed twice before a tie at the end of the seventh that lead to extra innings.

The game was tied at two runs apiece going into a scoreless second inning for both sides.

The Cards offense came alive with two runs in the top of the third, and the defense kept the Scotties at bay at the plate to take the lead 4-2 going into the fourth.

The Cards were scoreless in the top half. At the bottom of the inning, starting pitcher Shores loaded the bases. But Ashlyn Tamietti came to her rescue when, on a 3-2 count with two outs, she snagged an in-field pop-up fly to leave all three runners stranded and retire the side for a scoreless inning going into the sixth with the Cards still leading 4-2.

Medical Lake was again scoreless in the top half. But not the Scotties, whose bats seemed suddenly magnetized to Shores’ pitches in the bottom of the inning. With only one out a Scotties RBI put the tying run on first. Then, with two outs, another RBI tied the game with the go-ahead runner on third base who was eventually brought in, along with two other runners for a 7-4 Scotties lead going into the seventh inning.

But Medical Lake offense decided to return the favor. From the top of the batting order, an Allison Duncan triple brought in a runner to narrow the gap to two runs before Shores hit a two-run RBI triple to tie the game. Then Musser struck out, bringing Kaylee Thompson to the plate. With Shores on third representing the go-ahead run, Thompson hit a centerfield fly that was caught to retire the side with the score tied 7-7.

From the circle, Shores struck out the first batter, but allowed another a single. Then a Scotties batter hit a fly to Duncan at shortstop who threw to first Musser at first for two outs.

Musser caught a pop-up infield foul ball to end the seventh with a tie and extra innings.

The International Tie-Breaker rule, or Texas tie-breaker, puts a runner on second to start the extra inning. Blakely chose his speedster, Thompson, who managed to advance to third. But with two outs, Mijai Ryans hit an infield flubber that saw her tagged out before getting to first to end the top of the inning.

The Scotties started the bottom of the eighth at the top of their batting order. The pre-positioned runner at second made third on a Card error, and a Scottie batter hit a sacrifice fly to bring the runner in and end the game 8-7.

Of the 4-8 season record in NEA League play and 7-10 overall, head coach Tim Blakely said it wasn’t bad.

“We definitely showed some offensive abilities that surprised me,” he said. “But defensively we struggled with the kids we had. Our pitching was solid.”

The Cards are losing three starters from this year. Senior starting pitcher Shores and Ashlyn Tamietti are both graduating, and third baseman Chloe Hanson is transferring out of district.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].