By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MEDFORD, Ore.– Willamina found themselves in a dogfight with Yreka of California to close out the North Medford Tournament Tuesday morning.
The early season fatigue from playing four games in two days had caught up with both squads, but they continued to battle as the game turned into a high-scoring affair.
Down 15-10 going into the bottom of the fourth inning, the time limit had been achieved to put the pressure on the Bulldogs to pull off the comeback victory.
And it was something they did.
Lily Crowe drove in a run off a double, Tandalyn McKenna stole home, Sadie Risseeuw drove in a run off a single, and the Bulldogs drove in two runs off an error to tie up the game at 15-all. All with one out on the board and the game-winning run at third base.
Momentum was on their side, and the Bulldogs finished the job, a sacrifice fly by Brianne Buswell to right field allowed the game-winning run, L. Barton, to tag-up and score five to give Willamina a 16-15 victory.
“It was great,” said Buswell of the win. “We started talking more at the end and keeping strong. Definitely talking more and not letting the errors get to us,”
“It was big, because we weren’t sure how we were going to do with an up-and-coming pitcher and stuff like that. It was really good,” adds Paisley DeLoe.
That up-and-coming pitcher, Bridgette Manley, struck out six in six innings pitching Tuesday and 14 in 12-and-a-third-innings over the four games in Medford and kicked off her first season in High School strongly.
“It’s giving the look of what it’s going to be throughout the season and I’m so excited for it. Coming in as a freshman is hard, doing this type of stuff before the season actually starts is good,” said Manley. “We’ve learned to push through our mental side and really work to win.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
