By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
STAYTON, Ore.– Regis’ Kinley Schade got herself in a big-time pickle in the bottom half of the seventh inning of Tuesday’s 2A/1A Special District 3 league game with Santiam.
The game was tied at seven, and Schade had worked her way to third after reaching base on a Fielder’s Choice and took advantage of two passed balls to get to third base. All this with two outs on the board and the Wolverines were in the middle of a rally after trailing 6-2 entering the sixth inning.
Schade got a jump on a pass ball, but it was a large enough jump that Schade got herself stuck in a pickle, a rundown, in between third base and home with the game on the line.
“I was so stressed,” said Schade. “I just do as my coach says. They’re very wise and are very appropriate with our calls, and I knew that they had faith in me.”
But the freshman kept moving and evaded the tag, Schade was trying to avoid sending this game to extra innings. As short as the picklet was, a golden opportunity showed itself to Schade with an overthrow at third base that allowed the freshman to take home in walk-off fashion, 8-7, to defeat Santiam to open the three-game series. Capping a hard-fought victory for the Regis squad that’s still unbeaten in league play at 7-0.
“It was crazy because we’ve never been in that kind of situation before. Just knowing that we can come out on top after being in that situation, it’s really big for us,” said Hadley Foster, who led the Rams with two hits offensively.
For Santiam, who will host Regis for a doubleheader on Friday, it was those middle innings that had even put them in a tight jam in the first place. The little things went against them as they saw their 2-0 lead that they built going into the bottom half of the third inning, turning into a four-run deficit by the start of the sixth inning.
But they did claw back.
Their two-run sixth and a three-run seventh to tie it, that seventh inning saw Lindsay Briley hit a two-run Home Run, did force Regis to do what they had to do to win the game. Now, it’s just a matter of cleaning it up as they try to win both games on Friday to take the series up in Mill City.
“We didn’t come out with the best energy at the start of the game, I would say, but at the end, we did bring it back. We just got to have more positivity in the dugout, especially when we’re batting and more talking when we’re on the field for sure,” Briley.
Briley and Brooklynn Massey each led the Wolverines with two hits each, and Boston Flores struck out five batters pitching. Addi Bishop led the Rams defense with 12 strikeouts in the victory.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
