Traverse City Record-Eagle

Softball

May 6, 2009

TC West takes doubleheader from Central

Trojans' rally falls just short

BY MIKE ECKERT

TRAVERSE CITY -- It was a Big North Conference softball sweep for Traverse City West Tuesday, but it didn't come easy for the host Titans.

After West earned a 6-1 win over rival Traverse City Central and built a 10-3 lead in the nightcap, the Trojans stormed back but fell short in their rally in a 10-8 final.

The wins keep the Titans (10-8) alive in the Big North at 4-2.

"We have a key game against Cadillac and then a makeup with Petoskey," West coach Kathy Breece said. "Hopefully, we'll go into the Petoskey game needing to beat them twice. That would be nice."

Central slipped to 3-15 and 0-8 in the league.

"It was a struggle, and it's always hard coming up to the other side of town," Trojans coach Shawna Esther said. "They have a great ball team. Basically we are just working on improving every day. They battled today and they were working on playing 14 innings through. That's been a struggle for us lately. But that last game they played pretty hard, and we're happy with that."

The Trojans started the rally in the nightcap in the bottom of the fifth inning with two runs to make it 10-5.

Then in the bottom of the seventh, Kaitlyn Bussell led off with a single and came home on an RBI double from Mariah Sika. Meredith Aja then walked and Kortney Stevens got to first on an error that brought Sika home with one out.

The 10-8 score would be as close as Central would get as West got a 5-3-2 double play on the next hitter to end the rally.

"Our philosophy this year is to score more than we give up and we did that today," Breece said. "I know we're a little weak on defense and we're strong hitters. We're young and made some mistakes, but credit goes to TC Central for putting us into positions to make mistakes."

The Titans were paced in the second game by four hits from Tori Lockwood, including three doubles.

"Tori Lockwood did a really nice job at the plate for us," Breece said. "She's a left-handed hitter, so she's bunted a lot and slapped a lot. This year, we've worked with her on hitting the ball hard. I came up at one time and said 'Tori, we've got runners at second and third, you need to find the ball on the inside part of the plate and pull it.' She did, she just crushed it."

Rachel Barnes also scored four runs after hitting two singles, walking and getting hit by a pitch.

"That was key for us," Breece said. "When she got on base, we scored."

Junior pitcher Emily Crawford also earned her first varsity win for the Titans.

Adrienne Bruder, Sika and Bussell each had two hits in the nightcap for Central. Sika also had two hits in the opener.

Nikki Cook suffered the loss in both games for the Trojans. She had six strikeouts on the night and didn't allow a walk in the first game.

"She's had to work through some pain, so that was pretty intense," Esther said. "She threw her heart out today."

West had two runs and two hits from Barnes in the opener while Sarah Goudey had two hits. Katie Colmus earned the win on the mound.

While playing 14 complete innings was something TC Central worked hard to accomplish Tuesday, the Trojans will look to add more goals the next time out.

"One thing we're definitely going to work on is our mental game," Esther said. "That's one thing that's always on top of our list. We're working on our bunt defense, and also on our base running as well. We made some decisions there that weren't quite right, but we're working on that."

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