Arlington softball catcher Lilly Lang athletically caught a pair of foul pops behind the plate Monday at the RVR Bank Sports Complex, reversing some of her Eagles' fortunes against the visiting Gretna East Griffins.
The road team still won 8-0 in five innings, but coach Janelle Lorsch's squad held East to just two runs after a six-run start during the first frame.
“I think it's just luck. I don't know,” Lang said of catches. “You've got push the umpires out of the way sometimes.”
The Class B Griffins scored three of their first-inning runs on off-target pitches. They also notched a two-RBI single and a sacrifice fly to take control of the game.
AHS' Britt Nielsen, Lydia Schaapveld and Savannah Lang responded by loading the bases during the bottom half, but Gretna East held their team scoreless.
Relief pitcher Tessa Spivey and the Eagles, however, held their guests with out another run until the fifth inning, too.
“I think we just started talking more,” Lilly Lang said. “We just started getting some more balls hit to us.”
Spivey played an important role in that, inducing outs and striking out seven more East batters across four innings of work in the circle.
“It was good,” Lang said. “She was pitching it where they were getting some ground balls to get the outs.”
Emme Timm notched an Arlington hit during the bottom of the fifth inning, too, but the Eagles were unable to manufacture a run and keep the game going. It ended, instead, by run-rule in the Griffins' favor.
Arlington drops shootout
AHS scored far more runs Tuesday in Valparaiso, but Raymond Central won the shootout, 17-16.
After a conservative start, the teams combined for 16 runs during the third inning. Coach Lorsch's squad jumped out to an 8-1 lead with seven runs first before the Mustangs took back a 10-8 advantage with nine runs during the bottom half.
The lineups battled to a 13-13 tie before Raymond Central broke it with a run in the fifth frame. It led from there, improving to 5-10 overall.
Arlington, meanwhile, dropped to 5-7 overall despite home run swings by both Lauren Pittman and Kallan Reed. Pittman finished the game 3-for-5 at the plate overall.
The Eagles were scheduled to compete Thursday against Tekamah-Herman and next play Saturday in West Point during Guardian Angels Central Catholic's home tourney.
AHS SOFTBALL LINE SCORES
Tuesday
Raymond Central 17, Arlington 16
AHS (5-7) 1 0 7 3 2 0 3 — 16
RC (5-10) 0 1 9 3 1 3 X — 17
Monday
Gretna East 8, Arlington 0, 5 inn.
GE (6-6) 6 0 0 0 2 — 5
AHS (5-6) 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
