Game recap.

NPF website story. 

It was Sarah Pauly vs Serena Settlemier tonight, in a rematch from Thursday night.

Pauly's night did not start out promising, as leadoff batter Erin Evans hit the third pitch from Pauly deep to LC for a HR. But we answered right back in the home half. Courtney Bures was moved to the leadoff spot tonight, and she got us started with a single to left. Nicole Barber bunted her to second, and Oli walked. Amber Jackson's grounder forced Oli at second, moving Bures to third. Catalina Morris hit a spinning bloop over the third base area into short left field, scoring Bures. Tied at 1 after 1.

The yo-yo battle continued when Rockford struck again in the top of the second. Former Glory member Stephanie Best singled to right. (She had two hits on the night, to the delight of many fans on the home side of the field.) She was erased by Sandy Vojik's fielder's choice, which saw nice defense from both Bures and Oli on the 3-6-4 play. Voljik stole second, then scored on a slap single to right from Audrey Rendon. No answer from us meant we were down 2-1 after 2.

After a scoreless top of the third, we tied the game on Oli's league-leading 9th HR of the season, this one over RF. Tie game after 3.

No more scoring until the home half of the 5th. Jackson reached on a walk, then was off and running when Morris's liner 1-hopped the fence in RC. Jackson scored on the RBI double, her second hit and RBI of the night. We were up 3-2 after 5.

Drama in the top of the 7th, once again. Up just one run, Rendon lead off the inning with a grounder just under the reach of Sara Larquier at third base, and into left field for a single. Rockford had been caught stealing in the 6th, so Rockford instead sac-bunted her to second base. Lindsay Gardner then followed with a hard line drive deep to center. Rendon was unable to determine that Morris would not catch it, and with one out decided to tag. This caused her to be held at third when the drive hit the fence and Morris threw it back in quickly to save a run.

First and third, one out, Tonya Callahan (6 HRs) at the plate. Rather than let her try to tie the game or take the lead, they chose to steal second. Bures cut in front of the bag at second to take the throw, and looked the runner at third back to the bag. The runner from first had stopped a few feet from second base at this point, then headed toward second just as Bures flipped to Jackson covering the bag at second. She couldn't have seen this runner behind her, so it must have been a great communication job from Amber, getting the key second out of the inning.

The count was now 0-2 on Callahan.. Pauly's riseball on the very next pitch got a swing and a miss, and a victory for Washington.

Also contributing at the plate tonight was Larquier, with a stand-up double on a 1-hopper to the fence in LC, Callie Piper (single in 6th), and Jessica Moore (single in 2nd, walk in 4th).

Pauly did not have her normal dominating night, getting her first K in the 4th, before totaling 5 for the game. She gave up 8 hits and 3 walks, but that lead to only 2 runs. Her win is her league-leading 10th of the season. Settlemier's second loss of the series puts her at 1-6 on the year.


End Notes: Leah English was back in the lineup tonight, as a reward for going 3-3 last night. Unfortunately, she was 0-3 tonight, but she's still leading the team with a .375 average (3-8).

One good call by the umps tonight got our attention. After Sara's double in the 4th, Cambria Miranda went in to run. One out later, Callista Balko batted for Callie Piper. She hit a hard shot that the third-baseman was lucky enough to have it bounce into her glove. After looking Miranda back to second, or at least trying to, she threw to first. Miranda broke for third, which caused first-baseman Callahan to pull her foot off the bag in an attempt to throw back to third to get Miranda. The ump correctly called it correctly, and Callahan was charged with an error on the play. No throw was ever made, and we ended up leaving the bases loaded that inning.

We saw another career first tonight. In the bottom of the 6th, after Piper's leadoff single, she broke for second base. Moore swung and missed. The throw down to second was accurate, and looked to be in time, but no tag was ever attempted, and Piper slid in safely for her first professional stolen base.