The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Cardinals
But after that our energy was up for that whole inning and you could tell. We played a lot better.”
Also in the fifth Faye Clark, Ashlee Alliff and Sarah Torres collected RBI. Torres unloaded the bases on a triple to deep center field, bringing Brookside’s lead to 7-4.
She then shut the door in the seventh with the go ahead run on second base.
“She a resilient pitcher for as young as she is,” Collins said. “She definitely dug in today. She doesn’t let what happened before effect her, she just goes to work and that’s how she’s always been.”
Brookside scored its first run in the bottom of the first on a single from Lindsay Nader, that scored Musall. The Cardinals bats then stayed quiet until the fifth, thanks to Firelands starter Rachael Rennie.
The Falcons threatened in the seventh, scoring a pair before Musall got a strikeout to end the game.
“Every little bit counts when you have an inning where everything falls apart like that,” Firelands head coach Judy Dostall said. “When you play defense like that you aren’t normally going to come out on top.”
For Firelands’ center fielder Delaney Overstreet had three RBI, including the triple that gave the Falcons the lead in the fifth. Catcher Larren Rounds was two for two with two RBI and Rennie also added a pair of RBI.
Rounds was walked with two outs and a runner on first in the top of the seventh, after Firelands scored a pair of runs to bring the game within one.
Musall then struck out Alyssa Cornwell to end both the threat and the game. “They battle,” Dostall said. “You can’t roll over and play dead, this isn’t a possum sport. You’ve got to come back and forget what happened that inning and hit the ball. We hit the ball well today.”
The two teams combined for 31 total hits, but costly errors turned out to be the deciding factor.