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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. August 16, 2005m UPDATED WITH POSTGAME INTERVIEWS 12:45 p.m. E.D.T.: It was a play to remember. One of those fastpitch horrors you never forget when you see it.
The Hurricanes Take the Title. Taryne Mowatt crosses the foul line, about to be mobbed by her teammates for handcuffing the Brakettes the second straight night, this time for all the marbles and the ASA National Major Fastpitch Championship. Photo by WPCNR Sports.
The Schutt Hurricanes, Orange County, California, 2005 ASA National Champions. Photo by WPCNR Sports
One out. One on. Brakettes lanky righthander Sarah Pauly protecting a 2-1 lead in the faithful seventh, had the Hurricanes’ Gabby Guerrero at 1-2, and induced Gabby to hit a routine grounder to first.
Brakette First Sacker, Kim Wendlend scooped it, looked to second to get the lead runner. She had her by 10 feet. Instead of taking the sure out at first for out number two, Kim, (whose great stretches at first had put the Brakettes into the doubleheader for the championship), whipped the sphere to shortstop Lovena Chaput coming across the bag. Suddenly, horribly, irretrievably, the throw sailed high. Wide. Way over the desperate leaping Chaput’s glove!
All hell broke loose.
The tying run, Danielle Peterson, was flying to third! Brakette leftfielder Amanda Jensen, racing over from left, dove perpendicular to the grass to block the disasterous throw with her stomach. She blocked it, but could not control it, allowing Guerrero to reach second. Instead of 2 out and a runner on first, the tying and potential winning runs were in scoring position.
That brought up Monday night’s heroine, Ashley Herrera. Pauly worked her to 1-1, and Herrera reached out and pulled the 1-1 solidly with a sickening whack in the night into left getting it down in front of Jensen, tying the game, 2-2.
Pauly then faced Number Two hitter, Kim Gonzalez, whom she had fanned three times. She worked Kim to 1-2, and the lefthand hitter reached out and flared a high and away pitch into leftfield, scoring Guerrero with the winning run.
The poke was eerily reminiscent of the Arizona Diamondbacks Luis Gonzalez winning hit off Mariano Riviera in the 2001 World Series. It was the same kind of hit, over a drawn-in infield.
Taryne Mowatt, the towheaded twirler who tamed the Brakettes Monday night took the circle in the last of the seventh and retired the Brakettes 1-2-3 to nail down the Schutt Hurricanes first national championship. It was her second straight win over the Brakettes, duplicating a mastery reminiscent of Lew Burdette in the 1957 World Series.
Remember? The stylish Burdette won three games against the old Bronx Bombers. I saw Burdette pitch in that Series and Mowatt had the same kind of methodical, determined poise and command and assortment of pitches Burdette had, without the spitter. When Mowatt gets in trouble she takes her time, composes herself, and the wait drives the eager hitters crazy.
Mowatt had pitched the Schutt Hurricanes to their first National ASA Major Women’s Fastpitch Championship, and Ashley Herrera had done the damage.
Sarah Pauly Starting the action in the Twilight. Photo by WPCNR Sports.
For six innings it looked as if the Brakettes, behind a strong Pauly (who whiffed 9 of the first 10 Hurricane hitters) would extend the Hurricanes to a second game. Stratford, ASA Champs the last three years, were looking to close their 58 years of winning tradition with a fourth and last championship before joining the National Pro Fastpitch professional league next year. They had to beat the Hurricanes in the first game and then go to Cat Osterman in the second game and win that one to do that.
Germaine Fairchild beats out a shot in the hole to start the second inning rally. Photo, WPCNR Sports.
In the bottom of the second the Brakettes broke on top against their nemesis Mowatt. Germaine Fairchild ripped a single in the shortstop hole, beating shortstop Becky Turi’s throw to first by an eyelash.
Kellian Roessner racing to first on her single to right, second inning. “G” Germaine Fairchild is cruising into second. Photo by WPCNR Sports.
After Mowatt popped up Denise Denis, the feisty Brakette catcher Killian Roessner singled to right. Mowatt continued her mastery over Erica Sobel getting the Brakette power hitter to ground into a force, on a chop that landed behind the mound, moving the runners to second and third. Calli Piper waited on a change up and took it to the opposite field just past Ashley Herrera in the second-first hole, scoring Fairchild and Roessner to make it 2-0.
Piper’s Single to right, scores Brakettes runs for a 2-0 lead in the Second. Photo by WPCNR Sports.
Error leads to first Hurricane run.
After her ninth strikeout to start the fourth inning, Pauly muffed a Baltimore Chop to the third base side allowing Becky Turi to reach first safely. She walked Suzy Brazney on a 3-2 pitch and Danni Hall the Bustrosian first-baseman stroked a solid single into center to score Turi to make it 2-1. Pauly got Miller and Peterson to end the inning.
With the tying run on second in the fifth, Pauly fanned Kim Gonzalez and got Krista Colburn on a pop foul to ease out of the jam. She got the Hurricanes 1-2-3 in the sixth and needed just three more outs to force a nightcap for the Championship.
Mowatt hangs tough.
Her counterpart Taryne Mowatt hung tough after the Brakettes second inning flare-up, retiring 12 of the 15 Brakettes she faced. Stratford fans muttered, “we need another run,” as the Brakettes could not open the margin. Kim Wendland singled in the sixth and was stranded on second, the only other Brakette threat.
The splendid, fast-moving Hurricane outfield took away should-have-been-hits three times. Kim Gonzalez made a shoe string diving catch on her belly to rob the Brakettes Callie Piper in the 4th, had she missed it , it might have scored Sobel with a third run. Amanda Jensen was robbed by leftfielder Mallory Miller, who made another sliding-on-the-stomach glove extended grand larceny to begin the fifth.
The faithful seventh.
So the scene was set for the seventh that turned on errant throw into center. However, the score was still 2-1. And the Hurricanes Herrera and Gonzalez got the big hits to take the game away. Brakettes Manager John Stratton went to Cat Osterman to get the final two outs of the inning, but the damage had been done. Mowatt got Erica Sobel on a grounder to Herrera at second, struck out Callie Piper on a 3-2, and fanned Amanda Jensen to clinch the championship in the last of the seventh.
The Post Game
Coach Paul Wilk of the Hurricanes said of the rally, “It was just awesome. This is for our coach, Mike Roberts, he passed away in February, a year and a half ago, and we’re going to take this trophy back to his wife. He was doing this for twenty years. It was awesome. We did it for him.”
Asked if he said anything to the Hurricanes going into the last inning, Wilk said, “No, Suzy (Brazney) said let’s get it done. We had our 7-8-9 hitters and just stepped up.”
Ashley Herrera, Heroine A Second Straight Night. MS. Herrera was named Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Photo by WPCNR Sports
Ashley Herrera, who tied the game, with runners on second and third and 1 down, with a solid single in front of the leftfielder, asked if she took a different approach, said “I had to get it done. There was no room for error in the game. Tonight was our night to win. I just had to stay calm, look for my pitch and not go out of my zone. I actually pulled an outside pitch and got the good part of the bat on it and pulled it out there.”
Herrera uses a long bat, has a very quick stroke and has icewater in her veins in the clutch. She is not particularly big but she has a hitter’s nerve.
Kim Gonzalez, a strike out victim her first three times up against Pauly was asked if she did anything different in her last at-bat against Pauly that resulted in plating the gamer, said, “I laid off the riseball. That was my plan. I stuck to the plan. I believe I hit a screwball, it was outside and I went with it to left field. It felt good. ” Gonzalez said she didn’t think Pauly was tiring or slowing down at all. “I became more disciplined,” Gonzalez said.
Taryne Mowatt, Winning Pitcher, left, Suzy Brazney, Winning Catcher. Paul Wilk, Winning Coach. Photo from Monday evening by WPCNR Sports.
Catching up with the Winning Pitcher Taryne Mowatt, the pitcher said ” I stuck to the same game plan that got them the night before. I knew that my team would come back and score runs, so I knew I just had to keep them in the game by not letting any more runs score. My changeup was on again tonight and my drop ball was doing pretty well. So I stuck with a good mix. I didn’t try to go too many of the same pitch, I kind of mixed it up between all of my pitches.”
Asked how she works each batter, Mowatt said “I do remember hitters and my catcher calls the game and she remembers hitters so we tried to throw to everybody’s weaknesses. We kind of had an idea of their weaknesses. We went to somewhat of a routine on certain batters but tried not to stick to the same routine.”
Mowatt struck out four, walked 1 and gave the Brakettes only 4 hits, retiring the 16 of the last 19 Brakettes she faced. Mowatt, 18, with incredible poise, was named Most Valuable Pitcher of the Tournament. You’ll be seeing her on TV in the future, if ESPN ever discovers the miracle of fastpitch softball.
Pauly deserved a better fate. She fanned 12 Hurricanes, walked 1 and all three runs were unearned, allowing 6 hits.
Suzy Brazney, Mowatt’s battery mate who was honored for her 26 years of playing softball, who caught the game discussed how she and Mowatt pitched the vaunted Brakette lineup:”I tried to mix them up as much as possible. I know they’re a pretty free swinging team. We just tried to throw a little bit of everything at them. A little up, a little down, a little in, a little out, and change speeds as much as we could, just try to keep them off balance. Taryne’s changeup has been working real well, and because they’re free swingers you got to change speeds on them or they sit on that one particular speed.”
Brazney explained what makes Mowatt effective: 10 different pitches. “She has five different pitches, and all different angles and different speeds, so that helps a lot. I call both pitch and location. She can throw the drop inside, the drop outside, the curve inside, the curve outside. So you got about 8 or 9 total by the time you put them both inside and outside.”
Another Great Season
Another ironic comparison to the 2001 World Series Seventh Game, was that the Brakettes too, like the Yankees were trying to win their fourth straight championship, and that a similar error by Mariano Riviera, trying to get a force at second to cut off the tying run, and throwing it into center field, setting up Luis Gonzalez winning series hit.
Fans of course immediately criticised the play, that the Brakette first baseperson should have taken the sure out a first to make it a two out situation. But, the play was there. A good throw would have put Herrera up with no runner in scoring position. If the play is made, we would all be talking what a heady, smart play it was.
But that’s why ball is such a great game. It takes so much effort to get good, stay there and win, and you always have to give the other guy or gal their chance. You have to beat them.
The Schutt Hurricanes played terrific defensive ball, moved the runners, got timely hits and took the Championship away. They are the only amateur team to beat the Brakettes this season. All Brakette losses have come to National Pro Fastpitch teams. The Hurricanes are worthy successors to the Brakette excellence that has pioneered fastpitch softball the last 58 years.
In many respects this Brakette team assembled at the beginning of the season, after they had lost many players to the NPF, and that competed evenly with National Pro Fastpitch teams was Manager John Stratton’s best managing job, with a record of 51-17. Stratton, in a Connecticut Post interview, second-guessed himself for not removing Pauly and going to Osterman earlier. But that’s ball for you.
Brakettes, Receiving Awards at the Postgame Ceremony. Photo by WPCNR Sports.
The Brakettes hung out long by the dugout, signing autographs, saying goodbyes as the Fastpitch season had finally ended, many preparing to go back to college.
Killian Roessner, the Brakettes catcher, hanging out after the game, showing no tears, was ready to play again. In a spirit typical of the drive in all these players we had the privilege to see the last two nights, she said. “Wait ’til next year.”
Fastpitch Sunset in Stratford, Connecticut. Seventh Inning. Photo by WPCNR Sports
