WPCNR PRESS BOX. April 16, 2003 UPDATED April 17 WITH COACH COMMENTARY: WPHS Junior Tara Pollard set down 21 consecutive Yorktown batters Wednesday, striking out 11 and not allowing a ball hit out of the infield, as she outduelled Yorktown sophomore sensation, Roberta Marro, 2-0 on O’Donnell’s Bluff.
80 DEGREES AND PERFECT: Tara Pollard finishes off the 21st consecutive and final Yorktown batter in the 7th Wednesday, for a called strike three, completing a perfect game. Shortfielder Carrie Abbot, had just made a backhand stab of a low liner inches off the ground, going to her right in the shortstop hole, reaching low, across her body to spear a bullet drive at her ankles, robbing the previous hitter of a basehit to preserve Tara’s gem. The first great play of the season.
Photo by WPCNR Sports
Ms. Pollard kept the Yorktown hitters way off balance with creative use of fastball, drop and curve, fanning 11, inducing 6 grounders, three pop-ups, and that 1 scorching low liner to Carrie Abbott.
Anatomy of a No-Hitter: O’Donnell Credits Pollard’s Drop and Curve
White Plains Coach Ted O’Donnell said, “Tara pitched a great game. I had her primarily
work the outside of the plate with the curve and the drop.”
ON THE WAY: On a sunsplashed diamond Wednesday, Kim Wood at third and Kelly O’Neil at first crouch as Tara Pollard delivers. The ball appears as a yellow spec. It appeared that way to the hitters, too as Yorktown sent 21 batters up and 21 went down.
Photo by WPCNR Sports
O’donnell told WPCNR that Pollard used a riseball to strike out three of her 11 K’s, saying, “It’s a great strikeout pitch because batters with 2 strikes are often a little anxious and tend to swing at balls high out of the zone. She used the change-up on occasion with the top of the order to throw off their timing. She threw only a total of 3 or 4
fastballs when she got behind in the count.”
O’Donnell noted that the two hard hit balls to shortstop Carrie Abbot in the last inning (the only two hard-hit balls), were actually drops over the plate that got up too high.
Curve, Fastball, Riseball, Changeup, and now “The Deadly Drop”
As if Pollard did not have a formidable arsenal already, Coach O’Donnell says the Drop is waiting in the wings:
“That happens (the two hard hits to Abbot) when she releases the (Drop) ball too late,” O’Donnell said after the game. “Tara learned the drop this winter and I’ve been telling her that it’s going to be her most effective pitch. It drops and breaks away from the righty’s and since most kids try to pull everything, they end up with a weak ground ball to the right or just pull away and miss it all together.”
Marro was a victim of two unearned runs, and deserved a better fate. The Tigers scored in the first frame when Candace Abbott was safe on a throwing error, taking second on the overthrow by the third sacker. Tara Pollard, who went 2 for 3 on the afternoon, bunted Candace over to third and beat out the sacrifice.
Cleanup hitter Kelly O’Neil lofted a towering flyball down the leftfield line. The leftfielder drifted over, caught the ball in foul territory, with Candace Abbott tagging up and scoring for all the runs Tara needed.
The Tigers added another tainted tally in the fourth stanza. Kelsey Kulk singled sharply through the shortstop hole into left, took second on a passed ball. Candace Abbot hit a ball sharly to the thirdbaseperson’s right, who backhanded the ball, and in eyeing Kulk off second, threw the ball offline to first that the first baseperson could not handle, allowing Kelsey to score to make it 2-0.
The Tigers after a week of rainouts, are now 2-0. They play John Jay next Tuesday on the road at 4:15 P.M.
