The Lady Bruins softball team hosted the South Umpqua Lady Lancers Wednesday afternoon who made the trip from Myrtle Creek after taking the game series against the Douglas Lady Trojans.
Junior right-hander Madison Taylor #22 was in the circle to start the game for head coach Tony Baron, sitting down the side in order on ten pitches.
The top of the Lady Bruin order did their job in the bottom of the 1st, getting two on, sacrificing them into scoring position, pressuring the Lady Lancer defense into an error, and scoring the 2 runs…textbook Lady Bruin offense, taking a 2-0 lead after one.
The Lady Lancers would get a run back in the top of the 2nd after getting their first base runner off a double from Madison Taylor’s first pitch of the 2nd inning. A passed ball advanced the runner to third, who would then score on an infield error. Taylor struck out the side swinging, in order, after the first pitch lead off double.
The Lady Bruin bats put the first two on in the bottom of the 2nd, but the Lady Bruins just couldn’t get the the runners home, ending the 2nd leading 2-1.
South Umpqua’s second batter in the top of the 3rd would work a walk out of Taylor after fighting off two foul balls and seven pitches. That walk would advance to second on a fly to center field, and score the tying run after consecutive infield errors. Again Taylor retired 3 of 4 batters faced in the inning, with a strike-out, ground-out and pop-up to end the inning tied 2-2.
And then the bats went silent, for both teams until the top of the 6th when the second batter in the inning for the Lady Lancers worked her way on with a 1 out, 7 pitch walk. The walk would again advance to second on an error, and on to third on a error, scoring on the following base hit, to take a late 2-3 lead into the bottom of the 6th.
The Lady Bruin offense would go down in order in the bottom of the 6th, and withstand a late run by the Lady Lancers in the top of the 7th, still trailing 2-3 going into the home half of the final inning of play.
Lady Bruin sophomore Cam Crosby #2 would work her way on base with a 1 out, five pitch walk, and be advanced on a sophomore Tristan Brouillard #1 infield hit. Both would advance to second and third on a wild pitch. Junior Jordan Pryor #16 would then appear to beat out an infield hit, scoring Pryor to tie the game… only to be called out at first, ending the game with a 2-3 loss.
The now 4-3 Lady Bruins will be on the road this Friday traveling to Myrtle Creek to take on this same 4-0 Lady Lancer team to decide who will take the season series.
