SHS softball nearly rallies in game one, drops game two to Lakeland

Every cause — whether it’s in softball, or in athletics or life — has an effect.

If one of the league’s two best softball teams wins a doubleheader 20-13 and then run-rules the other team 16-1 in the second game, then a myriad of reasons are behind those margins of victory — whether it be fielding errors, a hot day at the plate or riding the conference’s best player to pitching eleven innings, homering twice and doing everything in between.

But as simplistic as it sounds, sometimes all it takes to drop a series is a bad day. Simple as that.

After the Bulldogs left Travers Park with two losses — one close and another not as much — against the Lakeland Hawks on Tuesday, Sandpoint softball head coach Elizabeth Hawkins-Williams concurs with that sentiment. All it took was a bad day for Lakeland to take the lead in the league standings.

“In all honesty, we had a bad day today,” Hawkins-Williams said. “We had a lot of errors in the field that were basic, fundamental mistakes. We weren’t prepared for Lakeland being aggressive on the bases. For us, it was just a bad day.”

Bad day or not, the Bulldogs looked like they would turn the tide on several occasions during the first game.

For a while, it looked like the five-run first inning was an anomaly: The Bulldogs chipped away at Lakeland’s lead, pulling within three runs on three occasions, and even got to within 15-13 after the fifth inning.

During these moments, the Bulldogs looked like the most complete team.

Taking advantage of an inexplicable pitching change in the bottom of the fifth, Tanis Davis drew a walk, Natalie Petit advanced her into scoring position on a come-backer to the pitcher, then Jaycie Irish loaded the bases with a bunt. Back-to-back RBI doubles from Brooklen Steiger — who smashed a line drive down the third-base line — and Emma Loutzenhiser’s second, RBI hit of the day put Lakeland’s lead in jeopardy. Loutzenhiser’s heads-up base-running to steal home on a passed ball put the Bulldogs within two, prompting the Hawks to put their two-way ace Taylor Woolley back on the mound the next inning.

“They know that no lead is safe against them,” Hawkins-Williams said. “That’s what’s very powerful about this group, They could be down 8-0 and they know they can come back. It’s a great attribute that this team has.”

As cliche as it sounds, things just didn’t pan out for the Bulldogs when they did fall behind in game two. Chalk it up to Lakeland’s hitting — which was near automatic throughout the series — difficulties finding the strike zone or the simple truth that playing from behind is much more difficult than playing with the lead: regardless of the reasons, the Bulldogs struggled.

But they avoided the ignominious shutout. Down to their last out, Izzo Edwards hit an RBI double to drive in Kinzie Ward and avoid the shutout.

Whenever Sandpoint sought a defensive stop throughout the series, either catcher Ember Dewey, utility player Izzo Edwards or shortstop Riley Cessna answered the call. For better or for worse, Dewey had a busy day at the plate. Her back-to-back outs to close the top of the second in game two nearly gave Sandpoint the momentum heading into the bottom of the inning. Dewey not only snagged several key pop-ups behind the plate, but also tagged out Kyleigh Dyer at the plate to shut down what appeared to be another big inning for the Hawks.

Meanwhile in the outfield, Izzo Edwards made several inning-ending grabs — all of which had varying degrees of difficulty. There was the no-look snag in the left-center gap to close the fourth in game one, or the several would-be routine catches in the outfield that were made difficult by Travers Park’s erratic winds.

And then there was Cessna, who had another performance that made her look like the Bulldogs’ most dependable player. Although she didn’t quite light up the Hawks like she did in the first series, she finished 2-7 with a pair of RBI and drew a walk while spearing several would-be grounders at shortstop.

“They are the lifeblood of the defense,” Hawkins-Williams said. “They are definitely great defenders for us. They were a little off in the first game, but they came out firing in the second game.”

Firing on all cylinders would be a challenge the Bulldogs couldn’t overcome. The offense stalled, both pitchers struggled to find the zone and Lakeland caused a slow death by singles during game two. With the sweep, the Hawks’ (7-11, 4-1 IEL) are in the pole position for the 4A Inland Empire League’s top seed.

Sandpoint (3-9, 3-3 IEL) travels to Moscow to close out the IEL season in a doubleheader on Friday. Game one starts at 2 p.m.

Full fielding and hitting stats unavailable at press time.

Lakeland 516 032 3 — 20 19

Sandpoint 132 340 0 — 13 13

W — Woolley, 10. L —Davis (1-4), 4.

HITS: Lakeland — Brack 4, See, Cooley, Pruitt 2, Gosch, Russum, 2B — Gallus, Pruitt, Gosch, Wardak, Woolley. 3B — See 2. HR — Woolley 2. Sandpoint — Dewey 2, Cessna 2, Edwards, Irish 2, Loutzenhiser, Petit 2 2B — Davis, Loutzenhiser, Steiger.

Lakeland 540 70 — 16 18

Sandpoint 000 01 — 1 4

Game called in the 5th due to run-rule.

W — Woolley, 3. L — Irish, (1-3), 1.

HITS: Lakeland — Brack 3, See, Woolley 3, O’Hara 4, Russum, Pruitt 2, Russum 2. 2B —Gosch, Wardak. Sandpoint — Ward, Petit, Davis. 2B — Edwards.