Game recap.

NPF Website Story.

Lots of red on the field tonight, as both teams had red shirts. Sarah Pauly vs Jocelyn Forest. We've started the games a little late so far this season, but I failed to notice the start time tonight, since it wasn't a work night and I had no games of my own to run off to. (Plus I was too busy chatting with my friends.)

Our lineup looked more like Game 1 of the serious, as Nicole Barber and LaDonia Hughes were back to 2nd and 9th in the lineup, respectively, and Courtney Bures was back at 2nd. Oli was at first and Stephanie Best at DP. New England decided to reward the previous night's home run hitter, Carmen Paez, with some pine. Another newcomer, Carrie Embree, got the start, batting 9th and playing CF. Alex Sutton was announced as playing first, with Lindsey Angus as the DP.

The first inning was a little hard to follow. After 2 quick outs, Pauly walked Jessica Merchant, and went to a full count on Lindsey Angus, while expressing some obvious frustration with the strike zone. Angus fouled off a 3-2 pitch into the backstop, and the next thing I see is Angus walking to first. I'm not sure if an illegal pitch was called, which would have meant ball 4, or I missed ball 4 (too much talking to my friends, perhaps). Even stranger, New England then sent Carri Leto Martin in to run for Merchant at second, who is by no means slow. Sutton then lined out to center to end the threat.

During the break, these changes were announced: Lisa Iancin moved from 2B to SS, Leto Martin to 2B, and Angus to 1B. This would leave Sutton as the DP, and Merchant out of the game for an unknown reason. (Perhaps some sort of injury we didn't see?)

Jessica Moore started the bottom of the first with a 5-3 groundout. Barber lined a single to left. With Oli at bat, a hit-and-run was called. Oli's infield grounder would have ended the inning otherwise, but with Barber running, NE settled for the out at first. This mattered greatly, as Amber Jackson proceeded to hit it out over the left field fence for a 2-run homer. My UVa girl Sara Larquier followed with a line single to left, but Bures flied out to right to end the inning. We were up 2-0 after 1.

The top of the second was quiet other than Amber Jackson's error on a 2-out grounder from catcher KJ Kelley. Newcomer Embree grounded out to third to end the inning with no damage. The home half was even more quiet, as Best, Callie Piper, and Hughes went 1-2-3. Still 2-0 after 2.

Top 3: With 1 out, Jackie Carbonatto laid down a perfect bunt to reach safely. Jessica Merchant re-entered (whatever caused her to leave apparently no longer an issue), and her grounder to third snuck under the glove of Larquier, for the second Glory error of the night. Angus popped up to second for the 2nd out, and then things got interesting. Jackson made her second error of the night on Sutton's grounder. With the runner from second trying to score, Jackson retrieved the ball and threw home, but too late. Callie then rifled it to Larquier at third, and Merchant was out easily. The run scored, so we were up 2-1 in the middle of the third.

To start the bottom of the third,  Merchant went back to SS and Iancin back to second. Moore, Barber, and Oli went 1-2-3, though it appeared that Barber was safe on her grounder to second, as Iancin stumbled a bit when she planted for the throw.

The only interesting thing in the top of the 4th was NE allowing pine-riding HR hitter from the previous night, Paez, to pinch hit for Kelley. She fouled out to right field.

We countered with three non-typical things: Burres was hit in the foot by a pitch, then took second on a wild pitch, and Best went down swinging. Why is a K interesting? After 9 Ks on Thursday from Pauly and Forest combined, this was the first recorded by either pitcher. Still 2-1 after 4.

The top of the 5th saw the end of the night for newcomer Embree, who was allowed just one at-bat before being benched for Shanel Scott. She lined it hard to Larquier, who fortunately caught it with her glove rather than her body (for which she seemed very thankful). Jackie Pasquerella and Carbonatto completed the 1-2-3 inning.

Defensively for the bottom of the 5th, Scott went into LF, and Carbonatto moved to CF. New Glory member Jessica Dignon (number 6 but still unnamed) made her professional debut by pinch hitting for Piper, and drew a walk. Hughes bunted her over to second, as the team was playing for that one insurance run that we all thought would be huge. Moore then lined a hard shot into center, which Carbonatto fielded cleanly one one hop. Even so, the runner was sent home. The throw was high, but caught by Kelley, who had time to bring the ball down and tag the runner for the out. Moore took second on the throw. Barber grounded out first to end the inning. Still 2-1 after 5.

The top of the 6th was confusing. With one out, Angus (announced as the DP but playing first base ever since NE took the field), hit a line shot that just got by Larquier before she could get her glove out far enough. Angus is not fast, and held at first for a single. Then NE pinch ran for Angus with Jocelyn Forest. Since Forest was already in the game (pitching, of course), this baffled me and several people around me. Still, no argument came from our coaches, so I guess it was legal. Maybe since she was not batting, she was allowed to run? Still, that seems like it's still a substitution. Maybe if the person not batting had run for the DP that would make a little more sense, but Angus has playing 1B. The official play-by-play on the NPF website says Forest subbed for Angus, then Sutton subbed for Forest at the plate. It didn't matter anyway, as Sutton went down swinging (Forest stealing second), and Lisa Modglin grounded out to SS to end the inning.

Bottom 6: Oli hit a line shot to the base of the fence in center, which allowed her to reach first safely (but just barely). Bianca Cruz came in to run, and another hit-and-run was called. However, Jackson couldn't reach the riseball, and Cruz was out easily at 2nd. Amber then popped out to the pitcher, and Larquier flew out to deep right to end the inning. Still 2-1 after 6.

Top 7, and it would have been nice to have that insurance run we wanted earlier. Lisa Iancin lead off the inning with a shot over the fence in left. She only hit one total last year, in 99 at-bats, so we're going to chalk that one up to the short fence at Westfield. Three straight groundouts to third ended the inning, but we were now tied.

Bot 7: Bures out 6-3. Catalina Morris pinch hits for Best, but flies out to left. Piper grounds a ball up the middle, and Merchant makes a diving stop. She gets to her feet and throws, but Callie legs out the infield hit. Hughes pops up softly to 2B to bring up extra innings.

Top 8: This one got a little dicey. After one out, Merchant lines a single to left, then Angus grounds a single to center. 1st and 2nd, 1 out. Sutton lines out to left, which allowed do advancement. Then Pauly gets just her second K of the night, ending the inning.

Bot 8: Moore is hit by the pitch, causing some sort of argument from NE, which was ignored. Barber bunts her over to second. After a conference, Oli is unintentionally intentionally walked on 4 pitches, bringing up Amber Jackson. This would typically be her time to shine, as she did several times last season. Plus, she homered way back in the first. But since then, she had two errors in the field, and grounded out to second and popped out to pitcher. Which might be why NE wanted to face Amber instead of Oli. It turned out that was the right decision, as Amber flew out to left. This brought up my UVa girl Larquier, since she was batting in her proper 5th spot again tonight. I said to my friends that she would take care of this, because I had faith in her. And like she did so many times last year, she took the very first offering and deposited it over the outfield fence, this time to right center. Game over, we win, 5-2.

Another great game from Pauly, with just 5 hits and 1 earned run, but only 2 Ks. Also another shaky defensive performance, with three errors for the second straight night. But those who made the errors also drove in the runs, so it all worked out. Pauly improves to 2-0, and Forest falls to 0-1.

End Notes: No players-throw-things-at-the-fans, at least that I noticed. Maybe they ran out of beads.

In the middle of the 5th, the Chicken Dance song was played. Several Glory players moved out from the dugout towards the field to participate, include Nichole Thompson, torn ACL and all. She had even hobbled out to the circle during introductions, so she's obviously moving around more. And now dancing (kinda). At one point she was twirling on one leg (not the one in the brace, the other one). We're just glad she didn't fall over.

Then, before the top of the 6th, she and Amber join in the fun during the YMCA song. She's holding a ball in each hand for some reason. Amber then bails on her and runs out to SS, so she turns towards RF. The ump walks up behind her, and then patiently waits for her to stop dancing, so he can get the balls she was supposed to give him. It's good to see Nikki getting back to her old self, even if it is a slightly less mobile self.

Once again tonight, all of our runs came on home runs. We've done this every game so far, 11 runs over 3 games, all courtesy of the long ball.