July 6, 2018 By Chris Varney
The Grinnell Tiger softball team might have saved their best for last but it was not good enough. On Thursday night, the Tigers pushed Pella into extra innings but the Dutch scored in the bottom of the 8th inning to take the game 5-4 and end Grinnell’s season at 10-21.
Grinnell made a statement early when Kate Kriegel led off the game with a towering double to left. Kiana Kies would then bloop in a single and Hannah Behrens would walk to load the bases. Ashlynn Imhoff hit a ground ball to first — Pella’s Ally tried to get an out at home but the throw went in the dirt and it scored 2 Tiger runs.
The Dutch would answer in the bottom of the first. Kies was playing her first game at third base all year thanks to an injury to Lindsey Hollibaugh. Unfortunately, 2 errors by Kies in the inning would lead to two runs on a 2 out 2 RBI single by Destiny Brown. Pella would take the lead in the 3rd inning on a 2 run HR from Kinzi Van Wyk off of Lydia Roudabush to make it 4-2 Dutch.
The Tigers answered in the top of the 5th as Van Wyk suddenly could not find the strike zone. Emma Ware got a 1 out walk, Kriegel would single and Megan Doty would walk to load the bases. Kies would bring one run home on a sacrifice fly to center. Behrens would walk to reload the bases and Van Wyk would walk Imhoff to force in a run to tie the game at 4-4.
Both teams had chances to break the tie. The Dutch got Courtney Thompson aboard to lead off the bottom of the 5th but Alizabeth VanDusseldorp grounded into a double play to Doty at 2nd base. Grinnell had a great chance in the top of the 7th when Kriegel got her third hit of the game, a leadoff single. Doty then reached on an error as the ball deflected off of Van Wyk’s glove on all ball hit back to the circle. Kies would try to move the runners over with no outs but her bunt was fielded by Brown quickly at third base and threw behind her to get Kriegel, the lead runner, at third. Behrens grounded into a fielders choice and Imhoff flew out to end the threat.
The game went to the 8th inning and the Tigers got a bad break in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Brown would walk for Pella and move to second base on a bunt. With 2 outs and Elly Cairney at the plate, Roudabush threw a ball in the dirt that looked like it might have hit Cairney and then rolled away with Brown taking third base. Cairney certainly thought she was hit as she trotted down to first baseball. However, the umpires talked things over and said Cairney was not hit, instead it was wild pitch and Brown could stay on third. Roudabush regrouped and got the count to 2 and 2. The next pitch was outside and low but Cairney swung and missed for strike three but the ball got away from Imhoff and went back to the screen. That allowed Brown to score from third to end the game and end the season.
Roudabush pitched a great game, only allowing 3 hits and did not allow another hit after Van Wyk’s homer in the third inning. Unfortunately the walk and wild pitch in the 8th was costly. Kriegel had 3 hits and 2 runs; Kies had 2 hits a run and a RBI and Imhoff had 2 RBI but it was not enough.
It was one of the best softball games I have seen this season but the breaks did not go Grinnell’s way in the end. Still, it brings some hope for the future with no seniors on the Tigers roster.
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