The buildup to the game on Tuesday at Diamond of Champions in Poynette was huge. The #1 and #2 ranked teams in Division 3 in the state were playing for sole ownership of the conference lead. Poynette had beaten Lake Mills back in early May on an unearned run in the top of the 7th inning.
Tuesday’s game was everything any fastpitch fan could expect and enjoy. There were moments of tense drama for both teams with each team working out of trouble. In the end the L-Cats prevailed with a leadoff triple by Ellie Evenson and a one ball, two strike single up the middle by pitcher Taylor Roughen who won her own game with that hit. The final was 1-0 in eight innings as Roughen then retired the top of the order in the bottom of the inning.
Poynette garnered four hits, three by junior utility player Abby Klink while Evenson led the Lake Mills attack with a 3-4 day.
Roughen was tough all game long working out of trouble in the fifth after Klink’s second single of the game started the inning. Alli Ripp attempted to move Klink to second but failed on two bunt attempts before going down swinging. Peyton Kingsland did move to second but the one out sacrifice brought the #9 batter to the plate where a ground ball to shortstop ended the threat.
In the Poynette sixth second sacker Ashia Meister singled to right field with one out and after a fly out to right field stole second base. The throw from the catcher was a bit wide and the ball scooted into the outfield to the rightfield side of second base but Meister didn’t have time to get up and move to third. After the stolen base the count moved to a ball and a strike on Peyton Gest who had moved the ball hard in her first two plate appearances. Lake Mills coach Jim Clift chose to intentional walk Gest at that point and when Roughen struck out catcher Laken Wagner the inning was over with Klink stranded atop third.
In the Poynette 7th Klink nearly end the game with a walk-off home run to dead center but there was just enough wind blowing in to hold the ball up a bit and it hit the fence about two feet from the top for a sliding double. Roughen then recorded another strikeout before Kingsland moved Klink to third. Roughen coaxed a pop up to first to end the threat and that set up Evenson and Roughen’s heroics in the 8th.
Roughen struck out 10 and walked just one, the intentional pass to Gest. She scattered four hits. A key top the game for Roughen was that she limited the top three batters in the Poynette lineup to a 1x12 day including four strikeouts. Meister’s single in the sixth The loser was sophomore Holly Lowenberg who allowed the run on six hits, struck out 11 and issued one intentional walk.
Poynette’s conference record dropped to 7-2 with a big game tomorrow in Columbus. Lake Mills is now 8-1 in the conference race and guaranteed at least a share of the program’s first-ever conference title. For Roughen the win completed her quest to have beaten every Capitol Conference school in her four-year career.
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