Ephrata Outslugs McCaskey

The impression of Theo Yaidoo’s spikes had not yet faded from home plate, and teammate Kandice Liebl was already in the parking lot at Ephrata Middle School and on the way to her sister’s wedding, to serve as a bridesmaid.

McCaskey may have wished she’d left two hours earlier.

Liebl was on base four times, scoring four times and driving in four runs in the Mountaineers’ 20-10 victory on Friday in an L-L Section One-Two softball crossover curtailed after five innings by the 10run rule.

It was a matchup of teams working to find their place — McCaskey entered the day 2-6 in league play, 2-7 overall; Ephrata 1-6, 1-8.

“I wanted this one,” Red Tornado coach Corey Lloyd said, “but it didn’t work out.”

“We needed this,” said coach Meredith Dombach, whose Mounts, have dealt with key injuries on top of the callowness of youth.

“Today we got two of our girls back who had been injured — Theo (Yaidoo) and Ali (Zimmerman).

“Alyssa (Meier), who catches and plays outfield for us, is still out with a bad concussion. Getting a win, playing well and getting that confidence, is big.”

Friday the Mounts mounted a 15-hit attack, abetted by nine Red Tornado errors.

“They hurt us today,” said Lloyd of the miscues. “For some reason, we just couldn’t get the ball in the gloves.”

Ironically, an error gave McCaskey an early advantage as Zulie Velazquez singled leading off the game, scoring on an outfield error before Marli Schreiner singled in Tilda Binsann.

Ephrata’s varsity field is a re-purposed men’s slow-pitch/boys hardball field. It’s large — at least 315 feet down the lines, at minimum — and plays larger.

Liebl’s bases-loaded single tied the game in the bottom of the inning and Keegan Simmons chased Liebl home, singling to left and circling the bases as Corrine Fernandez misplayed the ball into a three-base error, chasing it to the fence.

The Mounts tacked on six unearned runs in the second inning, Liebl singling in two more runs.

Winning pitcher Jadan Mays, making her second varsity start, hit Tais Stallworth leading off the McCaskey third and Schreiner shot a base hit through the hole at second that rolled all the way to the fence in right center for a two-run homer.

Binsann would add a grand slam in the fifth on a ball that traveled to the fence in left center.

“You try to keep the ball in front of you, that’s for sure,” said Lloyd of the outfielder’s approach. “Once (the ball) got out there, it was gone. Man, you’re running forever.”

Ephrata took an 11-5 lead into the fourth and pushed McCaskey to the precipice of the mercy rule with a five-run inning.

The Tornado staved off elimination on Binsann’s slam, but Ephrata put four on the board in the bottom of the inning, the final run coming when Yaidoo (3-for-4, three runs, two RBIs) was ruled safe on obstruction while trying to score on an overthrow.