Long Ball Powers Lady Cruisers To Victories
Brooklynn Lucht and Mary Chabot showing off the balls they hit out of the park in the Cruisers 10-3 win over White River. Photo Credit: Mandy Brymer.
The Lady Cruisers used the long ball to help propel them to victories over Franklin Pierce and White River last week.
By virtue of having the best record in the SPSL 2A division, the Cruisers were the #1 seed heading into the 2019 SPSL 2A League Championship tournament. Due to securing that #1 seed, they would enjoy a bye in the first round before taking on the #8 seed Franklin Pierce Cardinals in the 2nd round on Wednesday May 8th.
Like they have seemed to do all year, the Cruisers wasted no time getting on the board. Leadoff hitter Hailey Rath would lead off the game by getting on base via an error by the Cardinal second baseman. A few batters later, the league leader in many offensive categories Brooklynn Lucht stepped to the plate. Lucht took the 2-1 pitch deep to centerfield for her league leading 9th home run of the season to give the Cruisers an early 2-0 lead. Kaitlyn Rath would follow Lucht with a homerun of her own to center as well. The Cruisers would lead 3-0 after the top of the 1st.
Haley Olson would once again get the start on the mound for Eatonville and go the distance to pick up her league leading 17th win of the season. Olson would pitch 6 innings and would only allow 4 runs on 3 hits, giving up 2 walks and striking out 4 Cardinal hitters.
The Cruisers would pile on 6 more runs in the 3rd inning thanks to a Berkley Porter leadoff home run, a Hailey Rath homerun and a double by Mackenzie Waller.
After adding 2 more runs in the 5th inning, the Cruisers would put the game away in the 6th inning that would be highlighted by Hailey Rath’s second home run of the game. A 3-run shot to centerfield to give the Cruisers the 15-4 victory.
Summary: Eatonville 15 Franklin Pierce 4 – WP: H. Olson (6IP, 4R, 3H, 2BB, 4K) H. Rath 3-5, HR(2), 2B, 4R, 6RBI / B. Lucht 3-4, HR, 2R, 2RBI / K. Rath 2-3, HR, 3R, 1RBI / B. Porter 2-4, HR, 1R, 1RBI / M. Waller 1-4, 2B, 2R, 2RBI / M. Miller 1-4, 2B, 1R, 1RBI
Cruising their way through bracket play, Eatonville would face #5 seed White River in the semifinals on Friday, May 10th in front of a huge home crowd.
The game would stay scoreless until the top of the 4th inning when the Hornets would strike first on a solo home run to left. That would be the last time White River would lead the game as the Cruiser bats were awoken in the bottom of the inning.
After a Berkley Porter single, and a Mary Chabot walk, one of the hottest hitters in the SPSL in Brooklynn Lucht would step up to the plate. After fouling off the first two pitches she saw, she took the third pitch deep over the right field fence to give the Cruisers a 3-1 lead.
The bottom of the 5th inning brought more fireworks for the Cruisers that would see them score 5 more runs. Madison Miller would lead off with a double to right followed by a Hailey Rath double to center that scored Miller. With Rath on 2nd, Mary Chabot would hit a deep fly ball to center for her first homerun of the season. Berkley Porter would draw a walk and Brooklynn Lucht would launch her 2nd home run of the game over the right field fence to give the Cruisers an 8-1 lead as they went into the top of the 6th inning.
White River would score 2 in the top of the 6th, but the Cruisers would answer back with 2 of their own in the bottom half of the inning when Mary Chabot would drive a pitch over the left field fence for her 2nd home run of the game and give the Cruisers a 10-3 lead.
The Cruisers would hold the Hornets in the top of the 7th to record their 20th win of the season and a trip to the SPSL title game against Fife on Monday, May 13th. The game will be played at 4:00 pm at Eatonville.
Summary: Eatonville 10 White River 3 – WP: H. Olson (5IP, 1R, 4H, 0BB, 4K) B. Lucht 3-4, HR(2), 2B, 2R, 5RBI / M. Chabot 3-4, HR(2), 3R, 4RBI / s. Coleman, 1-3, 2B / M. Miller 1-3, 2B, 1R / H. Rath 1-4, 2B, 2R, 1RBI / B. Porter 1-2, 2R / A. Hedrick 1-3
