COTTAGE GROVE – The Cottage Grove Lions might have felt like it just was not going to be their day this past Friday. They had lost 7-0 on Tuesday, and now had only two baserunners through five innings of Game One of a Friday doubleheader.
However, by the time Macey Basting singled up the middle in the bottom of the third inning of Game Two, the Lions had scored their 22nd run in the five innings since that point.
They would tack on one more thanks to an error and take a 15-9 lead after three innings over Junction City.
The Lions lost Game One of the doubleheader, but scored six runs in the final two innings to take momentum into Game Two. After the Tigers scored eight runs on three hits in the top of the first inning, and the Lions went down in order in the bottom of the inning, that momentum seemed to have been extinguished.
The theme of Game One, and much of the Lions season defensively, has been beating themselves. In the opener of a doubleheader, the Lions walked 14 batters and committed seven errors. On the season, the Lions average 10 walks and five errors per seven innings.
“Granted we’re walking people, but four errors in the first inning? …” Lions head coach Sarah Thompson said to a friend during a break in the first inning.
Thompson removed starting pitcher Kadence Crownover and re-inserted Tori Noffsinger, who threw 192 pitches in the first game and went on to throw 158 more in Game Two. The Lions’ lack of a second pitcher has been an achilles heel, and has resulted in Noffsinger throwing 88.3% of the team’s innings this year. To her credit, she came in and settled things down, allowing only one run in her first 3 2/3 innings pitched.
Noffsinger’s steadying presence in the circle allowed the Lions offense the chance to roar back to life. Nine runs in the bottom of the second, followed by six in the bottom of the third had the Lions in the driver’s seat.
The offense did not use extra-base hits to quickly put up runs, but just kept hitting singles, moving around the bases like a conga line that finished by stepping on home plate. In two innings, the Lions had 14 hits, 13 of which were singles.
The Lions have a clear blueprint for winning. They scored at least 11 runs in all five wins, compared to not having reached that number in any of their other 13 games before Friday. Unfortunately, things crumbled for the Lions defense, and the lead was lost in the sixth inning and never regained.
Last season, the Lions were 15-11 and made the state playoffs. Next year, the Lions will return Noffsinger, catcher and leadoff hitter June Thornton, team leaders in various batting categories in Jayda Bruner and Alexsis Woody, shortstop and OPS leader Shae Richardson, and slugging multi-sport athlete Makya Alsup, among others. The defensive miscues should naturally lessen as her players get more experience, and if Thompson can find another pitcher, her team will be dangerous. The Lions offense is that of a playoff team, if only they can limit the extent to which they beat themselves on defense.
