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Cochrane-Fountain City High School’s softball team took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh against Alma. That’s when trouble started for the Pirates.
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Cochrane-Fountain City second baseman Brittany Schmitt attempts to catch the ball as Alma's Samantha Treinen slides safley to the base Tuesday during the game between Dairyland Conference rivals in Alma. (photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
C-FC held a four-run cushion and needed just two outs for the win when Alma scraped together a late rally.
The Rivermen scored four runs with one out to tie the score 4-4 and send the game into extra innings.
Mackenzie Loewenhagen delivered a one-out RBI single to start the rally. Ali Ritscher scored the tying run from third on a wild pitch.
“It was a bad inning for us,” C-FC coach Steve Lyga said. “In each of the games we’ve lost we’ve had an inning like that where things kind of collapsed on us.”
Neither team advanced a runner past second base through the eighth and ninth innings. Neither team had a lead-off hitter reach base until the top of the 10th.
C-FC’s Beth Murphy drew a lead-off walk in the top of the 10th. Murphy was on her way to first when a bolt of lightning lit up the sky over the field. The field umpire quickly called time and the game was suspended, officially tied 4-4 in the top of the 10th, with no outs and Murphy on first. About one minute later, it was raining as hard as it had all night.
“It was a long game,” Alma coach Steve Sedlmayr said. “And it’s still going.”
It was the second time the game was put on hold due to weather. The opening pitch was delayed 30 minutes as a storm passed through the area.
No make-up date was set and it is unclear if the game will ever be picked up depending on its bearing on the Dairyland Conference standings.
“We slipped up a bit and it might cost us a lot,” Lyga said. “But it might teach us a lot, too.”
Ritscher, who has pitched every varsity inning for the Rivermen this season, had three strikeouts in nine innings and went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
“Ali is a strong ballplayer,” Sedlmayr said. “She’s a workhorse, she plays hard.
I can’t say enough about her.”
Loewenhagen went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
C-FC pitcher Annette Foegen started the game and struck out 11 over 61/3 innings. Foegen and Sami Murphy each went 3-for-5 with an RBI.
