High atop the hill overlooking the city of Lodi sits the high school. That's where today's key Capitol North game between the Blue Devils and the Poynette Pumas was played.
Both teams desperately needed a win. Lodi did need the W to stay tied for the loop lead with Lake Mills in terms of wins, while Poynette, with two losses needed to win to stay in contention for another conference title.
Lodi struck early with four runs in the bottom of the first inning on a single by Krumpen, a misplayed ball in centerfield scored her and that was followed by a base on balls before Hellenbrand laced a two-run single and when Beld doubled Hellenbrand scooted home for the 4-0 lead.
Not fazed, the Pumas answered back by cutting the lead in half with some timely hitting. With one out Morgan Gunderson doubled before Bailey Stark recorded the second strikeout of the inning. However, junior third sacker Maggie Steinhorst made contact that resulted in an error on the Blue Devil third sacker allowing Gunderson to touch home plate. Then, freshman rightfielder Ayla Johnson touched Stark for an rbi double.
Addison Mackey led off the third inning and hit a ball to rightfield that was misplayed and after a groundout scored when pitcher Kassidy McCaffery singled. The score was then 4-3 in favor of Lodi.
In the meantime McCaffery, who was in the circle for the Pumas recorded 1-2-3 innings in the second through the fifth innings. Stark singled to open the Lodi sixth and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. After a free pass to Beld McCaffery answered the bell by striking out the next two batters to end the inning.
In the Poynette seventh, down by a run Emma Gavinski singled and when Mcaffery doubled scored to tie the game but the next two Pumas' batters went down swinging and flying out to leftfield.
McCaffery coaxed a ground out to shortstop then got a pop up out to third before Reese got the Lodi crowd cheering with a two-out double so the winning run stood atop second base. McCaffery, however ended the inning with a fly ball to right field.
In the top of the eighth the Pumas sent the 6th batter to the plate to lead off. Karli Rivette stepped in and singled for the second time in the game. Steinhorst then got a sacrifice bunt down to move Rivette and when the third sacker misplayed the ball the Pumas had two runners aboard in Lodi. Johnson stepped in and bunted perfectly to move the runners and when freshman Livi McLean singled Rivette scored the lead run. With just one out Mackey came through with a key sacrifice fly to righttfield which scored Steinhorst.
Lodi then faced a two-run deficit and Stark gave them some life with a leadoff single. McCaffery was up to the task though and coaxed two comebackers and struck out the 24th out of the game to end it.
McCaffery got the hard-fought win. She allowed four runs (3 earned), allowed six hits, walked one and struck out nine. Bailey Stark absorbed the loss, allowing six runs (2 earned), struck out five.
The loss drops Lodi into a tie with Poynette for the second spot in the Capitol North with both looking up to where Lake Mills rests in the lead with one loss.
On Friday Lake Mills travels to Lodi who gave the L-Cats their one loss. A Lodi win would created a three-way knot at the top between the three. However, that would only last until May 7th when Lake Mills will invade Diamond of Champions for the first meeting between them and Poynette.
If you want to see an interesting game take a trip to Lodi High Schools tomorrow for that key game.
Tag(s): Get the News
