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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. Sterling, Virginia, July 23, 2003: Day Two of the PONY Nationals dawned with threat of rain direly being forecast on “The Worry Channel,” but ballplayers have long since learned not to listen to weather forecasts for skies were partly cloudy, humidity was up and the Rockets had to play two on Tuesday in the PONY National seeding rounds.
Day began with that “big league” feel of eating breakfast at the Hilton Inn & Suites buffet at 9:30 A.M.: pancakes, waffles, juices, coffee, donuts. Then the Rocket handlers drained the ice machines, transferring the ice into coolers onto bottles of spring water and Gatoraid. Rocketttes got attired in their uniform of the day: blue head band, red top, blue shorts and red sox and banded together in the lobby to tool up Harry Byrd Highway 7 miles to the Potomac Lakes Softball Complex.
Pregame activities consisted of the desultory warm-ups: throwing, followed by soft-toss, hitting the metal stick and bunting practice. No hitters like to bunt, but if you cannot move the runners effectively, you do not capitalize on opportunities in the fast pitch game and that was to become painfully evident over the sultry Virginia afternoon.
In the Rockets opener of the day, they met the Connecticut Bombers. By some quirk, the Rockets were scheduled to play two of three teams from the Northeast in the “seeding rounds.” The seeding rounds appear to be new this year, since the city fathers around Sterling must have realized, if you can keep the teams down here longer, the hotels, restaurants, Laundromats and supermarkets make hundreds of thousands dollars more. Teams are guaranteed 6 games, (three seeding games, then 3-loss elimination games).
The Rockets first game got underway at 12:30 PM, and the long slumbering Rocket bats took advantage of Bomber miscues to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Meg Johnson was safe on a dropped throw at first to start the Rocket home half, stole second moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a double ripped to left center by Andrea Bondi. Andrea moved to third on Ashley Clark’s grounder to short and scored on a passed ball.
The Rockets added another run in the bottom of the second on a single by starting pitcher Kaleigh , who was sacrificed to second by Nickie Reichert, and came around to score on Meg Johnson’s ribby single up the middle, 3-0 Rockets.
Kaleigh Burke, the Rocket righthander, after escaping from a flurry rally in the first, retired seven Bombers in row into the fifth. The Rockets added 2 runs in the fourth on a 2-run double by Melissa Milligram driving home Jess Cundari who had walked and Kaleigh Burke who had singled, to make the score 5-0.
The Bombers flew a 3-run sortie in the 5th when a dropped fly ball and back-to-back singles lead to 3 runs with the tying runs aboard, Kaleigh induced the numbers 3 and 4 hitters to popout and bounce back to the box to ease on out of the jam.
The Bombers then let the game get away by coughing up 3 more runs to the Rockets in the fifth after two were out. After Shane Pais had moved to second on Juliana Bailey’s groundout to second, Jess Cundari singled to plate Pais, and Jess scored on Kayleigh Burke’s single up the middle to make it 7-3. Kayleigh moved to second on a passed ball and scored on Nickie Reichart’s single, and the Rockets had built an 8-3 lead.
The Bombers plated 2 more runs in the sixth on a double and and a triple, but Burksie again eased out of a second and third jam with 2 out, inducing a groundout to Meg Johnson at second to retire the side. Kayleigh retired the Bombers in order in the seventh for the Rockets first win. It was the biggest scoring barrage the Rockets had mounted since last May.
After the win, the Rockets hung about watching other teams battling in the four other
Softball games going on simultaneously. They drank fresh-squeezed lemonaid, ate pizza and hung togother, looking forward to their next game at 3:00.
The Rockets 3 o’clock opponent was the Michigan (Ohio) Finesse, a team that had won 54 and lost 9, an elite club from the middle west. Katie Slingerland was in the circle for the Rockets.Both pitchers retired the side in order in the first and that set the tone for the day.
Slingerland pitched out of a runner on third no one out situation in the second, inducing two popups and a grounder to Andrea Bondi at third to hold off the Finesse. In the third Ashley Clark threw out the Finesse runner on a two-out steal attempt.
The third saw the importance of split-second timing as the difference in a close game in the higher reaches of fast pitch. Kaleigh Burke singled up the middle and stole second, and was sacrificed to second by Katie Slingerland. Juliana Bailey after fouling the first pitch, laid down a safety squeeze bunt inbetween the mound and third. On this play, the third base runner waits until the third baseperson commits to throw to first, then the runner and third breaks for the plate.
The bunt was down. The third-sacker fielded looked the runner back and fired to first, Bailey beat the throw, the first baseman threw a perfect low wicked throw to the plate and Burke was out at the plate by 3 feet. Side retired. It was the closest either team would come to a score the rest of the game. Did the third baseperson’s “deke” intimidate the third-base runner? Did she not break with the throw to first? The perfect execution of the Finesse, living up to their name had cut off a run.
The Finesse loaded the bases in the fourth and did not score. Slingerland walked the leadoff batter. The second batter was safe on a fielder’s choice. After a pop foul to the catcher, an error loaded the bases. Slingerland kept it low and got the fifth place hitter to hit to Andrea Bondi at third who gunned the throw to the plate for the second out, and produced a grounder to Shane Pais at short who flipped to Meg Johnson to end the bid.
As the 90 degree heat beat down the 0-0 duel moved to the fifth. The Rockets had another shot. Amanda Anderson looped a Texas League double into the glare of the sun and the Finesse leftfielder ran under the ball and it dropped. With Amanda on second and no one out, the next Rocket failed two attempts to bunt, then popped up, instead of hitting the ball on the ground and advancing the runner. Kaleigh Burke was safe on an error by the third baseman next, who wisely decided not to throw to first after her fumble, so Amanda on second could not advance. With two shots to score, the next Rocket fanned and the final batter hit a liner to first into the first baseperson’s glove.
In the 6th and 7th , with runners on first, the Rockets again could not advance the runners to scoring position. The Finesse had runners on second in the 5th and 6th, but a long flies to left in both instances were handled by Kaleigh Burke in left.
The game ended in a 0-0 tie after 7, called because of the 1 hour 15 time limit. A classic demonstrating what it takes to win a close low-scoring game: ability to move the runners, alert, intense base running, and “I want the ball” defense. From a hitting standpoint, patience at the plate was not on display, nor discipline, as many hitters on both sides swung at pitches out of the strike in their anxiety to get that one big hit. I also saw an oddity in the game, the umpire lost track of the count, giving one Finesse hitter 4 strikes which fortunately did not affect the outcome of the game.
Katie Slingerland pitched her finest game as a Rocket, throwing 81 pitches, walking 1 and striking out 1, and making good pitches in the clutch. The Rockets moved to 16-14-3 on the year.
The day wrapped up with a quick trip back to the hotel for a shower, collection of team laundry, then a team dinner at Joe’s Crab House, which was a lot of fun for the players. While parents settled in for long-awaited beers, the players enjoyed chicken-fingers and mozzarella sticks (the preferred fastpitch food). Sitting on a veranda overlooking one of the many man-made lakes in the middle of one of the many massive townhouse developments in this zoning gone mad area of the country, the players and parents watched the brooding thunder clouds predicted for that morning, move in from the west and start to empty out at about 8 PM.
Ballplayers should not watch weather forecasts. They should only be thinking about the next game. Because that’s what you live for, when you play ball.