Muscatine rallies for softball split

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By Dearrel Bates | Tuesday, June 10, 2008 12:33 AM CDT | () comments

MUSCATINE, Iowa — What happens when the state’s top two teams get together for a Mississippi Athletic Conference softball doubleheader?

Precisely what took place Monday night at Kent-Stein Park — two tight, well-played games between No. 1-ranked Davenport West and No. 2 Muscatine. West prevailed in the opener 3-2 before the Muskies rallied to nail down a split with a 2-1 victory in the second game in games played under overcast, threatening skies.

“You’re always happy to get a split after you lose the first game,” Muscatine coach Dennis Schuur said. “If you win that first game, the pressure is off, but if you lose. ... It was good for our girls to come back, hang in there and take the second game.”

West coach Steve Saladino said he would have preferred a sweep after his team won the first game.

“If you go on the road against a tough team like Muscatine and get at least a split, you have to be happy,” he said. “But after winning the first game, you’re hoping for the sweep. But as tough as the league is this year, teams are certainly going to have more than one loss.”

For both teams, it was their first conference defeat after four wins before Monday. Overall, West is 12-1, Muscatine 12-2, with the other loss coming last week to Wilton in a nonconference contest.

The Muskies captured the second game in dramatic fashion.

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth, a West error, a walk and a single by winning pitcher Kassy Middagh loaded the bases with one out. Chelsea Winegard hit a sharp grounder to Samantha Saladino at first, and her throw home cut down the potential tying run. Then Muscatine ninth-grader-to-be, Kelsey Regennitter looped a two-run single to short center.

“I was just trying to get on base; I was pretty nervous at the plate,” Regennitter said. “It feels good to get a split in the doubleheader, especially after we lost the opener. Both games went right down to the wire.”

Even after her what turned into a game-winning hit, the game wasn’t over.

With one out in the seventh, Lindsay DeVol cracked a double over the Muskies’ rightfielder’s head. Maddison Ruggeberg singled to left, with DeVol stopping at third. Allie Wilkinson’s grounder to third baseman Danielle Frere was fielded cleanly, with Frere checking the runner at third and throwing Wilkinson out at first. Hailey Nichol’s liner to left was snared by Chelsea Winegard on a diving grab just inside the foul line for the final out.

Middagh retired the first 12 Falcons in a row before losing pitcher Jamie Davis doubled to launch the fifth. After being sacrificed to third, she scored on DeVol’s RBI single.

Davis, who fanned six, walked three and gave up five hits in the second game, also went the distance in the opener. In that contest, she struck out 11 and walked one while yielding four hits.

“Jamie was on in that first game,” Saladino said. “We talked about her going in the second game, and agreed that if she got into trouble or didn’t feel comfortable out there, she would come out. But she pitched well enough to win, and except for that bloop hit, we might have also won that second game.”

Davis gave up runs in the first and fourth innings, with Frere’s double knocking in the former and losing pitcher Kayla Gaunt’s two-bagger the latter. The Falcons benefitted from some key errors by the Muskies to tally two runs in the second and what turned into the deciding run in the third on DeVol’s run-scoring single.

“My rise ball and my curve were both working pretty well,” Davis said after the opener. “I had been having trouble with my rise ball but we worked out my problems. We came into the doubleheader knowing they were big games and we didn’t want to lose our spot on top of the league and in the rankings.”

Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com.