When Wednesday afternoon’s softball showdown between Bay Rivers District powers Grafton and Poquoson ended in extra innings on a bang-bang play at first base, Clippers coach Vanessa Young may have been the only home fan who didn’t passionately express disagreement with the ruling umpire.
With Grafton trailing 11-9 in the bottom of the eighth inning and runners on the corners, Christa Hall drilled a shot to left side of the infield that appeared to get through for a single. Poquoson third baseman Sydney Turner, however, made a spectacular diving play to keep the ball in front of her, get up and fire to first.
Hall was confident afterwards that she beat the throw, but the first-base umpire ruled her the final out of the game as the Islanders held on for an 11-9 victory in the season opener for both teams.
Young pointed to her team’s numerous mishaps in the field, though, rather than the game’s final play that cost her team.
“Did I think [Hall] was safe? Absolutely,” Young said. “But it never should have even gotten to that point. We didn’t take care of business in the field all game. I bet we had one error each inning.”
Grafton actually committed five errors, although most proved costly and seemed to occur with two outs in the frame. Poquoson also crossed the plate three different times on passed balls.
Offensively, the Clippers delivered nine runs on 13 hits and showed there wasn’t a weak link in the lineup.
“Offensively, I thought we hit the ball really well,” Young said. “But defense let us down today. We talked before the game about how our pitchers aren’t going to strike out a lot of people and that [Poquoson] was going to hit the ball, so we were going to have to play solid defense, but we didn’t do that at all.”
With No. 1 starter Taylor Wiseman out at least four weeks with mono, the Clippers handed the ball to Allison Deaver who, for the most part, was sharp early on.
After allowing consecutive base runners to start the game, Deaver settled down to retire the next 10 consecutive Poquoson batters.
With the Islanders clinging to a 2-1 lead in the fourth, two Grafton errors in the frame helped Poquoson go ahead 4-1 before the Clippers’ bats woke up in the bottom half of the inning.
Hall got things started with a single and later scored on Tara Deck’s base knock. Deck would score on a passed ball to make it 4-3 Poquoson heading into the fifth.
After a Logan Walker single and Turner walk to open the top half of the fifth, Kelsey Snelgrow drove in both with an RBI single up the middle to stretch the Islanders’ lead to 6-3.
Grafton would answer again in the bottom of the fifth.
Hannah Olson (3-4), who may be the toughest out in the district and showed it Wednesday reaching base in all five of her plate appearances, got things started with a double. After Jessica Sprouse reached on an error, Emily Beyer reached on a bunt single to load the bases with no outs.
Hall then roped another base hit back up the middle, scoring Olson and Sprouse before Deaver helped her own cause with a laser shot to the left-centerfield gap that plated Hall and tied the game 6-6. Deaver would later score on a Taylor Wagner double to give Grafton its first lead of the game, 7-6.
In the top of the sixth, Poquoson’s Emily Gummo reached on an error to start the inning and, although Deaver would retire the next three batters consecutively, would score on a passed ball with two outs to tie the game 7-all.
Olson sparked a two-run seventh inning for Grafton after leading off with a walk. She scored two batters later on Beyer’s single before Beyer scored all the way from first on Hall’s triple to the outfield gap to put Grafton on top 9-7 heading into the seventh.
Holzbach led the inning off with a double and would score on Grafton’s fifth error of the game before Gummo stepped to the plates with two outs and delivered the game-tying run with a single to right field.
After Walker scored on a wild pitch to give Poquoson a 10-9 lead in the top of the eighth, pitcher Megan Hibbs came through with another two-out base hit that scored Turner and padded the Islanders’ lead to 11-9.
Olson and Sprouse would draw back-to-back walks in the bottom of the eighth to give Grafton life before the game ended on Hall’s close call at first base as Olson crossed the plate.
“We were fortunate to even be in extra innings thanks to our hitting,” added Young, who will refocus her team for another tough contest Friday at New Kent. “We shot ourselves in the foot, but now we have to accept that and move on because it only gets tougher Friday.”
Poquoson 11 Grafton 9 (8 Innings)
Poquoson- 200;221;22 – 11 11 3
Grafton- 100;242;00 – 9 12 5
WP: Hibbs (1-0)
LP: Deaver (0-1)
Poquoson (1-0, 1-0 BRD)- Walker 2-5 (2 runs), Holzbach 2-5 (2B, RBI, 2 runs), Turner 2-4 (3 runs)
Grafton (0-1, 0-1 BRD)- Olson 2-3 (2 2B, 3 runs), Hall 3-5 (3B, 3 RBI, 2 runs), Wagner 2-4 (2B, RBI)
