Things were not going the way of the Ball State University softball team through the first 83 outs of a doubleheader against IPFW on Tuesday at the BSU Softball Complex.
Then, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Cardinals loaded the bases and freshman Lisa Rozanski, who had zero hits in her last 19 at bats, came to the plate. With a 2-0 count, the left-handed slap hitter was hit by a pitch, pushing the tying run across the plate.
The game then went into extra innings, tied at one, and a runner was placed at second for IPFW, as softball rules stipulate. After retiring the first batter, Ball State pitcher Laura Masch made the IPFW batter ground to short, where Alicia Barkley fielded the ball, looked the runner back to second and threw to first. However, the throw was low, and it got past Amanda Pick. With the runner rounding third, right fielder Alyssa Collins picked it up and fired it in to catcher Abby Gross, a few steps left of the plate. Gross made the catch and swung her glove back, tagging the runner and preventing IPFW from taking the lead.
Then with one out in the bottom half of the inning, Gross and Collins came through again as Gross lined a ball off the pitcher's leg and into center field, allowing Collins to come home from second and score the winning run.
"It felt good because I was struggling at the plate," Collins said. "So [it was good] to be able to do something somewhere in the game and be useful somewhere, I guess."
While the Cardinals manufactured two runs in the final two innings, off two hits and two walks, they did not have the same production the rest of the day. Rachel Statschuk pitched the first six innings of the second game for IPFW and held Ball State scoreless on two hits and two walks. In the first game, a 1-0 IPFW win, Kayla Powell held Ball State scoreless on five hits and two walks.
"It was rough," Collins said. "We were hitting balls hard, just right at people, and that was kind of a bummer, but we stayed with it and didn't let that first loss get to us."
Ball State coach Craig Nicholson said the Cardinals' tough day was a combination of their bad at bats and great defense by the Mastodons.
"It's a tough day," he said, "but it's better getting out of here with a split rather than losing two."
Ball State was held to two or fewer runs in two consecutive games for the first time since March 12 and 14.
No Cardinal had multiple hits in a game against IPFW. Gross and Barkley led the Cardinals offensively as each player collected one hit in both games.
While it was frustrating for most of the day, Nicholson said, it was big for the Cardinals to finally be able to manufacture runs late in the second game.
"I think we're capable of manufacturing runs when we have quality at bats, but for 13 innings we were kind of up and down with our at bats," he said.
On the mound, Masch got the win in game two to improve her record to 5-3. She allowed one run on four hits, two walks and 11 strikeouts in eight innings. Tiffany Garofano lost the first game to fall to 7-10 on the season despite holding IPFW to one run on four hits, no walks and 13 strikeouts.
Defensively, Ball State committed two errors, both of which came in the second game. However, Collins made the defensive play when the Cardinals needed it in the top of the eighth, Nicholson said.
"Collins is where she is supposed to be, making a play she is supposed to make," he said. "She did a good job with that and made a good throw and [it was a] bang-bang play at the plate."
Collins said she acted on instinct and the ball came right to her when she backed up Pick. She heard "go four" and threw it to Gross, she said.
"She must have got a bad jump or something because she wasn't even close to there," she said. "It's what I do every day."
The Cardinals continue their season at 4 p.m. with a doubleheader at IUPUI as they try to avoid the same slow start they had Tuesday.
"I feel like we didn't come out with a whole lot of energy in the first game," Nicholson said. "You're playing a team you feel like you're better than, you've got to go take advantage of what you do better than what they do, and I think we kind of felt that we could just show up and win [Tuesday] in the first game, and unfortunately that's not how it works."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
