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Ralston girls exit districts
By Ron Petak, Recorder Staff Writer
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| Sophomore Jessica Farber takes a cut in the Rams’ Thursday district game against Bennington. On Friday, Farber had a pair of singles against the Badgers. Photo by Eric Taylor. |
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Bennington scored twice in the top of the ninth to post a 4-3 victory in the elimination game. It was the second loss to the Badgers in the tourney.
“We played well at districts but just could not seem to beat Bennington,” said Ralston coach Mike Smith, whose team finished the year 23-14. “The second loss was especially hard since it looked like we had it won.
“The girls played very hard, but we just did not take advantage of a few good opportunities we had during the game.”
Those opportunities included loading the bases with one out in the fifth and not scoring, and again in the bottom of the eighth and coming away with just a single run.
Bennington, which lost to Skutt Catholic in the title game to end its season at 29-7, jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first before sophomore pitcher Jenn Ulrich settled in nicely inside the circle. Ulrich worked all nine innings, scattering five hits and striking out four.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, freshman Katy Shupe led off with a single to center, and the Rams put two aboard when Brooke Lyman’s bunt was mishandled by the catcher.
After a strikeout, sophomore Jessica Farber blooped a single to right to load the bases with one out.
Leadoff hitter Taylre Keenan, another freshman, battled senior pitcher Bailey Backhuus to a full count before flying out to center – not deep enough for Shupe to advance to third.
One pitch later Karli Andrlik grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning.
The Rams tied the game an inning later when Mara Eeman walked to open the inning, moved to second on Kate Jadlowski’s sacrifice bunt, then scored when Mallory Ayres stroked a solid single to right-center.
Tied 1-1 heading into extra innings (innings begin with a runner at second base) Bennington took a one-run lead in the top of the eighth, but Ralston matched that in the bottom of the frame on Jadlowski’s RBI walk.
The Rams missed an opportunity to put the game away in the inning when a soft liner to second turned into a double play for the first two outs of the inning.
The inning ended two batters later with a bases-loaded strikeout.
Bennington pushed across two runs in the ninth, the first on an RBI triple from Hayley Carlson. A sacrifice fly followed to make it 4-2.
In the Ralston ninth, Brooke Lyman started at second and moved to third on Megan Korgie’s sacrifice fly.
Farber got the RBI with a single, but she ended the game stranded at second following Keenan’s sacrifice bunt and Andrlik’s groundout to end the game.
In other district games, The Rams rolled past Duchesne 11-2 in the tournament opener before losing 2-0 to Bennington. Dropping down to the losers’ bracket, the Rams knocked off Mercy 10-2 and edged Douglas County West/Concordia 6-5 before facing Bennington for a second time.
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| Fourth-quarter rally falls short |
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