Lady Bulldogs rally for state playoff berth

Zach Urness

Leader Staff

It was a case of feast or famine for the Mission Lady Bulldogs last Saturday.

The ‘Dogs rolled up nine runs in the first inning to bury the Plains Trotters 12-6, but couldn’t keep the momentum going in the second game, as Florence’s Kate Street, one of the top pitchers in the state, shut down the Mission bats in a 10-0 loss.

“It was good to get a win,” said head coach Steve Woll of the game against Plains. “It’s important to get those when we score runs like we did.”

Ashley Mitchell and Makenzy Foust combined for a half-dozen hits and six RBIs to help Mission score 12 runs in the first three innings. Mission also did a good job of capitalizing on the five Plains errors.

“We jumped out on them real quick,” explained Woll. “We scored on walks, singles and errors and a combination of things brought in runs for us.”

The big lead gave Mission a chance to rest starting pitcher Mitchell after the second inning and hand the ball to Bella Dally, who kept the Plains bats in control over the final five innings.

“It was good to get Bella some experience,” said Woll. “We decided to save Ash (Mitchell) for the second game against Florence.”

Rachel Jensen had two of the Lady ‘Dog’s ten hits in the game. Delena Weaselhead also went 1-for-3 and drove in two runs for Mission.

The second game on Saturday was a much different situation for Mission, who put a straight line of zero’s on the scoreboard. All-state Florence pitcher Kate Street held Mission to five hits for the game as the Lady ‘Dogs lost to Falcons for the second time in five days.

“There is a reason she’s a three-time state champ,” said Woll of Street. “But strangely enough, I was much happier with how we played in this weekend’s 10-0 loss then I was with how we played in the 7-1 loss earlier in the week. We had some key errors and dropped some fly balls which gave them extra chances. We had our own chances, but couldn’t put up any runs.”

Mitchell was stuck with the loss, although Woll noted that she pitched very well, contending with 5 errors, and got a hit. Makenzy Foust continued to swing a hot bat, going 4-for-6 over the two game set. Carlee Allestad and Lisa Larsson also had hits for Mission and continue to show improvement.

The .500 weekend puts Mission’s overall record at 6-9 in conference B/C games, which, in the state system of class B/C softball ranks them 15th in winning percentage out of 16 teams. The means they’d have to play the number two seed in the first round, not a prospect Woll is excited about.

“We don’t have a district or divisional tournament so we need to go on a little winning streak here” explained Woll. “That would make us .500 in the conference and give us a better chance in the tournament.”

Mission played the first of their must-win games on Tuesday as the Leader went to press. They will travel to Troy today (Thursday, May 10). Mission will also play a make-up game against Drummond on Monday, May 14 as the game that was originally scheduled for May 3rd was rained out.

Plains 012 111 0 - 6 6 5

Mission 912 000 x - 12 10 1

W-Mitchell

L-G. Reynolds

Weaselhead 1-3, McDonald 0-2, Mitchell 3-4, Bosley 1-4, Allstad 0-2, Hart 0-3, Jensen 2-4, Dally 0-3, Foust 3-4

Mission 000 000 - 0 4 5

Florence 200 306 - 10 10 1

W-Street

L-Mitchell

Weaselhead 0-3, McDonald 0-3, Mitchell 1-3, Bosley 0-3, Allstad 1-3, Hart 0-2, Jensen 0-2, Larsson 1-2, Foust 1-2