Game recap.

NPF website story. 

Another night, another shutout. Sweet.

Taryne Mowatt faced Jamee Juarez tonight. Mowatt had given up just one hit the only other time she faced Akron, but unfortunately she faced Tincher when she no-hit us, and she lost that game 1-0. The run scored thanks to 2 errors, so it was unearned. Akron was able to double their hit output tonight, but were still unable to score.

Just like last time, Akron ended the no-hit bid in the first inning. Norelle Dickson beat out an infield single, and stole second. But she was stranded there by two popups. The second inning was the first time Mowatt struck out the side, 1-2-3. Jessica Toocheck lead off the third and drew the first of 2 Mowatt walks in the game. She promptly stole second as well, and she too was stranded by her teammates.

The 4th inning required a little defensive help for Mowatt. Cleanup batter Kate Robinson lined a shot directly toward Jessica Moore in left. These are the toughest to judge, and she almost misjudged it into a hit, getting turned around while backing up. But her lunging grab at the last second snared the ball, recording the second out of the inning. Mowatt then got her second walk out of the way before striking out Kellie Middleton to end the inning.

The 5th inning was Akron's best chance. A one-out double off the fence in left from Toocheck gave them 2 chances to drive in a run, which at this point was still scoreless. But Mowatt struck out India Chiles for the second straight time, then got leadoff batter Veronica Wootson to ground out to SS to end the inning.

At this point Taryne was really in a groove, and she was ready to strike out everyone for the rest of the game. But Kristen Butler messed up that plan by getting hit by a pitch after one strikeout in the 6th. They ran for her with designated-thief Jherica Williams. She stayed put as Mowatt struck out Robinson. Rather than let Taryne strike out the side again, she took off for second during Susan Ogden's at-bat. But after 2 stolen bases already tonight, Callista Balko said enough was enough, and Williams was thrown out at second to end the inning.

The seventh inning: Ogden struck out for the 2nd time, Middleton struck out for the 3rd time, and Kim Hamilton (who had struck out twice already) was pinch-hit for by Shannon Doepking who, of course, struck out. That meant 12 of the 21 outs were on Ks, so the defense got a little bit of a break tonight. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Nicole Barber had a lawn chair out in right field, since she got zero balls hit that way all night long.

On to the home team. Juarez shut us out twice last year. Earlier this season back in Akron, she was up and down. Over 2 appearances, she gave up no earned runs over 4 innings. But a third appearance saw us score 6 runs over 4 innings. So which Juarez would we see tonight? A little of both, I would say.

She pitched very well for the first 3 innings. She allowed no hits, and struck out one batter in each inning. She faced only 9 batters, because although she walked DP Leah English, that mistake was erased when pinch-runner Cambria Miranda was caught stealing.

Juarez started to unravel in the 4th, possibly started off by a shaky defensive play. LaDonia Hughes grounded to a charging Wootson at second. Her throw to first was low but catchable. But it was not caught, possibly because Hughes was sliding in head-first. Normally sliding into first isn't a great play unless you're a avoiding a tag, since it almost always slows you down, but in this case it worked. Hughes was given a hit on the play, though I think it was an error on Robinson at first. Juarez was able to get two quick outs, but she then walked two st straight batters, loading the bases.

The next batter was Courtney Bures. She hit a sinking liner to second, and it was not obvious that the ball was being called as caught. It appeared that both umpires were looking at the other to make the call, and neither did. So, after a slight delay, Wootson decided to throw to first just in case, and since Bures had not really run, the throw beat her easily. Although the call was eventually made that the ball was caught, Coach Carie could have considered this a base-running error, and pinch-run for her the rest of the year. But Bures later drew a walk, and no runner appeared, so I guess she's safe.

Leading off for the Glory in the bottom of the 5th was Leah English. She has figured out that the only way she's going to get to run the bases is to hit the ball out of the park. Which she did! A no-doubter to left field for her first professional home run, and she proudly stomped on each base, in the proper order, before being mobbed at the plate. We had a 1-0 lead after 5 innings.

With one out in the sixth, Oli drew her 31st walk of the year (one behind NPF leader Kristen Zaleski). Jessica Dignon came in to run, but it turned out that Oli could have done it just as well. My Uva girl Sara Larquier took sole possession of the league lead in HRs with a line shot over center, her 13th of the year. That was it for the runs, as all 3 scored thanks to the long ball.

Let's just say it's a good thing that Mowatt didn't face Tincher last night. Mowatt's 12 strikeouts would have put the NPF leader to shame! She allowed just 2 hits and 2 walks, and improved to 3-4 on the year. Her ERA of 1.71 would be good for 2nd in the league if she had enough innings to qualify. Juarez allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks, while striking out 6 (one in each and every inning). She falls to 0-5 on the season.

End Notes: Since we play at a school, we had a substitute scoreboard tonight. Like some substitutes, this one didn't really understand the subject matter, and had to fake it. This mini-scoreboard looked like a basketball scoreboard, and it had room for a time remaining, two scores, and a quarter/inning. The time was used as a stand-in for Outs, Balls, and Strikes. It did the job but was hard to see from some places in the park, and is easily blocked by the stupid light pole that block the view from general admission.

The Battle of the Bats tonight featured 3 of the 4 leaders in the contest. For some reason, home team goes first in these things. Oli, batting third, was the third straight Glory to be blanked by the supposedly friendly pitching of Coach Erin. But Larquier studied and learned while her teammates batted, and she took 2 of Erin's pitches deep to take the lead.

Akron then got to bat. They used an actual pitcher, rookie Shannon Nicholson (the one who blogs).  She allowed the first batter, Angelina Mexicano, to tie all Glory hitters combined, hitting 2 out. Then, for some reason, Radara McHugh comes out to pitch to Veronica Wootson. After one pitch goes by, Wootson motions her back to the dugout, and Nicholson returns. Wootson goes 1-5. McHugh tries to sneak back in to pitch to Kate Robinson. She watches 2 pitches go by, and again McHugh is removed by the batter.

Since Robinson was the third person tied for the lead coming into tonight, her swings were carefully watched. She was down 2 to Larquier, but she came right back to tie it on her first two swings. The next two swings failed to clear the fence, and she was down to her last pitch. The fifth and final hit looked like it had a chance, but it stayed in the park, prompting Larquier to celebrate so hard I thought she might hurt herself. (The 4th person in the lead was Chicago's Samantha Findlay, with Jamie Clark right behind, so we'll have to wait and see what happened with those two.)

The final batter for Akron was Kristen Butler. McHugh is nothing if not persistent, so she came back out to the circle. Possibly out of pity, she was allowed to stay and pitch. McHugh does it differently than the rest: she tosses using a pretty full windup from the actual circle. (Most batting practice pitches are softer tosses, thrown from much closer to the plate.) But the catcher Butler was able to produce a HR on her final swing, so McHugh was happy.