Fairfield squeaks out revenge on Lakota West
The Fairfield softball team won its 14th game of the season Friday night against only three defeats, outlasting Greater Miami Conference rival Lakota West 5-4 at Lakota West and moved back into a first-place tie atop the GMC standings at 10-2 in the conference.
It was the fourth straight win for the Indians, but the Fairfield players felt they had something to prove after dropping an 8-1 loss April 18 at home to Lakota West and a 9-1 final at home Monday against Lakota East.
Friday cured what Fairfield coach Brenda Stieger called a very quiet week for her team despite three wins between the loss to East and Friday's game at West.
"It's a great game for that reason," Stieger said. "Any day, any team in this league can bring another outcome."
Freshman right fielder Erin Burdine broke a scoreless tie and started a five-run fifth inning with a screaming two-strike hit down the first base line to drive in sophomore third baseman Sydney Wyatt from second. Wyatt led off the inning with a double into the right-center field gap off Lakota West starter Ashley Sharp.
Freshman left fielder Maddie Koger was thrown out at the plate while trying to score behind Wyatt on Burdine's hit, but Burdine scored on a wild pitch moments later. The freshman slid just under Sharp's tag. Senior pitcher Ashlynn Roberts added a run-scoring single and senior center fielder Audrey Barrett capped the inning with a two-run double to the fence in right for a 5-0 lead.
"They know they're a very good defensive team and they know they're a very good offensive team," Stieger said. "After last week, they kind of started questioning themselves all the way around and it was a quiet week this past week. We had a tough game with East and kind of felt like we lost some of our momentum. I think it goes back to proving it to themselves."
West battled back with two unearned runs off Roberts in the bottom of the sixth and added two more earned runs in the seventh, but left the tying and winning runs stranded. Sharp laced a two-run single with one out before Roberts struck out junior third baseman Haley Johnson on a controversial dead ball call and got senior shortstop Kat Burbrink to ground out to Wyatt at third to end it.
"What was going through my mind was I got to strike them out, got to get them out, got to do something," Roberts said of the seventh inning. "It's so much different this year because I have a team behind me and I'm able to throw it over the plate and let them hit. Just like tonight, we make those plays. That's a lot different and it takes a lot of pressure off of me knowing how solid our defense is around me."
Play of the Game: Johnson seemed to be hit by a two-strike pitch from Roberts with the tying and winning runs on with one out in the seventh, but was called out on strikes by the home plate umpire for leaning into the pitch.
"He said she leaned into the pitch," Lakota West coach Keith Castner said. "Dead ball strike three, so she's out. It was the wrong call."
Star of the Game: Roberts is a Northern Kentucky University recruit in her first season with Fairfield after transferring from Colerain. She scattered four hits through the first five innings (11 overall) before running into trouble in the final two innings.
"I was just running out of gas I think, and we were just so anxious to get out of it," Roberts said. "It always seems to work that way when you really want to get out of it. Something small happens. They weren't killing the ball – they were just getting little hits, so that was a plus and I'm glad we came out on top."
Roberts struck out five and walked only the first hitter she faced Friday in a bounce-back game from last week.
View From the Bench: "I told the girls in the middle of that (seventh) inning, that's why I love this team so much because they keep fighting," Castner said. "They kept fighting and fighting and they didn't give up until the last play. As coaches we love to see that and that's why we'll do well this year.
"Fairfield is a good team. They came back and they played well today. They got it done today."
WP: Roberts (10-3). LP: Sharp (6-2). Hitting leaders: F –Barrett 3B, 2 RBI; Wyatt 2B. LW – Hedric 2-3; Sharp 2 RBI; Cummins 3-3. Records F 14-3, 10-2 GMC; LW 11-3, 9-2.