Bitburg, Rota and Lakenheath
are European softball champions
By Kent Harris, Stars
and Stripes
Michael Abrams / Stars and Stripes
Lakenheath ace Lindzi Wasko delivers a pitch in the DoDDS Division I title game against
Ramstein. Wasko shut out the Royals 6-0, after beating them in the morning to force the
if-necessary game. |
LANDSTUHL, Germany — It took 27 innings Saturday to decide three championships in
DODDS-Europe softball. But if you could only afford to see an inning in each of the four
games played, the fifth would have done quite nicely.
¶ Defending Division II champion Bitburg gave up a 3-1 lead in the
top of that inning, then came back to secure a 9-7 victory by scoring six times in the
bottom half.
¶ Defending Division III champion Rota scored four times in that
inning to counter Alconbury’s biggest output in the top of the inning and eventually
won 17-7 in six innings.
¶ Defending Division I champion Lakenheath forced a second game by
breaking through against Ramstein with all of its runs in the fifth on the way to a 4-1
victory.
Lakenheath pitcher Lindzi Wasko ruined the streak — and Ramstein’s title
hopes — in the last game of the tournament, though. She fired a two-hitter and the
game was all but over by the fifth as the Lancers triumphed 6-0.
Wasko, who recently returned to action after missing several weeks with a knee injury,
didn’t allow Ramstein to even get the ball out of the infield until the final out of
the — you guessed it — fifth inning.
"We just didn’t hit the ball today," said Ramstein coach Kent
Grosshuesch, whose team had defeated Lakeneath five times this season until
Saturday’s sweep. "Of course, we’re facing the best pitcher in Europe, so
that had something to do with it."
Wasko didn’t pitch badly in the first game — giving up six hits and an
unearned run. But she was dominant the second time the two teams met.
"The more she throws, the stronger she gets," Lakenheath coach John Gilmore
said.
Which meant that Ramstein was in trouble after its disastrous fifth in the first game.
Left-hander Jen Morton went into the inning nursing a 1-0 lead, thanks to Noel
Wanzer’s run-scoring single in the second and fine defensive plays by shortstop
Jennifer Bledsoe and left fielder Stephanie Beck.
"We were hitting shots, but was right at them," Gilmore said. "We just
kept telling the ladies: keep hitting and eventually they were going to fall. And they
did."
Ramstein’s defense helped out a bit, too.
Meghan Quasney’s leadoff single, two errors, Kelley Buck’s two-run single and
Rachel Dougherty’s RBI groundout were more than enough for Wasko, who retired the
final five batters she faced.
"I play better when I’m under pressure," said the senior right-hander,
who hopes to walk on to a program in the States next year. That’s, of course, if her
injured right knee is OK. She plans to get an MRI done on it in June.
Wasko didn’t appear to put much pressure on herself in the second game.
Run-scoring singles by Dougherty and Tasha Hood gave her a 2-0 lead in the second
inning. Dana Miller’s RBI double, Kate Galloway’s run-scoring single and
Buck’s sacrifice fly put the Lancers up 5-0 the next inning. Lakenheath tacked on
another run in the sixth, but Wasko clearly didn’t need it.
Ramstein managed only Kimmy Greene’s infield single through the first six innings
until Elizabeth Baker left off the seventh with a single.
Division II
Michael Abrams / Stars and Stripes
Bitburg's Jenni Coleman slide into home ahead of the tag by Patch catcher Jen Helfer. |
After winning the Division II title a year ago, Bitburg’s coaches weren’t
optimistic about their chances of repeating. That didn’t change at the beginning of
this season.
"At our first practice, we thought: ‘We are in trouble,’ " said
sponsor Hope Matthews.
But the Barons, sporting five freshmen in the starting lineup and only two starters
from a year ago, went into the tournament on a high note with only four losses on the
season – three to Division I schools. The other came at the hands of Patch. The
Panthers did it again earlier in the tournament.
But Bitburg led 3-1 entering the fifth inning when the Barons momentarily fell apart.
Two errors and Lara Galing’s RBI single suddenly had Patch in the driver’s seat.
That didn’t last long, though. A couple of Patch miscues and two-run doubles from
Jessica Brei-Crawley and Jennifer Kempf highlighted an inning that saw 10 Bitburg batters
go the plate — and six of them scored.
Division III
Michael Abrams / Stars and Stripes
Alconbury's Erin Sutton is late with the tag as Rota's Kelsey Hudson slides safely into
third. |
Kelsey Hudson may be more known for her basketball skills. In fact, the Rota senior is
heading to Azusa-Pacific next year on a scholarship.
But she pitched and batted the Admirals to their second straight titles in as many
Division III competitions.
Hudson was 4-for-5 against Alconbury, driving in four runs and scoring five times after
being a terror on the base paths. She wasn’t alone in that respect.
"We talked a lot about that during the year," coach Ken Hudson said.
"You always have to be aggressive on the basepaths."
The Admirals, seeing their first action of the season against DODDS competition in the
tournament, were on base a lot, partially due to 10 walks. They built an 8-1 advantage
after four innings, then gave up five runs to Alconbury in the fifth, with Traci
Satern’s two-run single being the big blow.
But Rota came right back in the bottom of the inning with four runs of its own. Then
the Admirals put the game away in the sixth with five more runs — two on
Hudson’s two-run single — and won the game via the 10-run rule as Hudson crossed
the plate one batter later.
DODDS-Europe all-tournament teams
Division I
MVP — Lindzi Wasko, Lakenheath
Kelly Buck, Ashley Byrd, Dana Miller, Natalie Barnette, Lakenheath;
Jennifer Bledsoe, Jen Morton, Elizabeth Baker, Ramstein; Stevie Holguin, Kaiserslautern;
Jessica Long, Jennifer Simon, Heidelberg; Kaitlin O’Neil, Wiesbaden
Division II
MVP — Michelle Hughes, Patch
Shannon Archer, AFNORTH; Rachael Pilley, Lisa Hatfield, Jackie Kirk,
Mannheim; Tia Imel, Jennifer Helfer, Patch; Jenni Coleman, Amanda Updike, Tonja Moore,
Lindsay Sherrier, Sarah Kempf, Bitburg
Division III
MVP — Kelsey Hudson, Rota and Kristen Hudson,
Alconbury
Erin Buckles, Jessie Bray, Brandy Dozier, Rota; Gemma Breedlove, Alicia
Christensen, Ashley Roy, Alconbury; Carolyn Espinosa, Cristin Hallstein, London; Laura
Morales, Jordan Henshaw, Menwith Hill
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