Solanco Outlasts Ephrata

It was a make-or-break moment in a game yearning for a conclusion.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning of a 5-5 tie, Ephrata’s Ali Williams doubled to the gap in right field, bringing Ellie Meier to the plate. Solanco head coach Brett Miller waved Meier to first with an intentional walk in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two softball game.

Mighty bold strategy, walking a batter who was hitless in three at-bats, to pitch to a batter, Maddie Russell, who had hit three balls out of the park off Golden Mules pitcher Anna Sexton — two of them fair.

“Eventually, you’ve just got to believe if you throw them where you want them, with pitch command, good things happen,” Miller said.

Good things happened indeed as Sexton made her pitch, Russell popped to third baseman Holly Grube and Kaliana Achey, who earlier had also deposited a ball beyond the left-field fence, struck out looking to end the threat.

“Sometimes you just have to remind them they’re in the circle for a reason,” said Miller, “and it’s time to do it.”

In the top of the eighth, the Mules’ Josie Janssen led off tripling to center field, on a ball that should’ve been caught, scored on a wild pitch and Solanco (2-0 league, 2-0 overall) claimed a hard-fought 6-5 victory Friday afternoon at wind-swept Ephrata Middle School.

Sexton finished with 11 strikeouts, allowing eight hits and three walks. Her counterpart in the circle, Meier, pitched out of several jams over the course of eight innings, striking out six while issuing a lone walk, and got a huge pick-me-up from her second baseman, Williams, in the Solanco seventh.

The Mules’ first two batters reached on a double and an error. With the infield up, Meier got a comebacker but walked Alyssa Schlagnhaufer to load the bases. Kendall Janssen went down on strikes and the infield returned to normal depth.

Good thing, as the next batter, Taryn Britigan, hit a sinking liner. Diving to her right, Williams snared the ball at the bag as she hit the ground.

“We tell the girls, every bit of effort you give just reinforces to the rest of the team that you have their back,” said Mounts coach Katie Yohe, “no matter what.”

Senior catcher Becca Foulk gave the Mules an early advantage with a two-run double in the first inning and a solo homer in the third.

The Mounts (1-1, 1-2) chipped away on Russell’s solo homer leading off the second inning and Williams’ RBI single in the third. However, Solanco appeared to take command in the fourth on Grube’s two-run single.

Achey’s solo shot in the fourth made it a 5-3 game and Meier settled in, retiring eight in a row before Grube’s two-out single in the sixth.

By then the Mounts had tied it up as Russell sent a blast over left, scoring Williams, who had reached on a bloop single.

“We were able to come back and work our way back through,” Yohe said. “This is the first time we’ve been tested like that, and to be tested like that, this early in the season, is exciting. It gives us a real starting point.”

The starting point of the Solanco eighth proved a pivotal point as Josie Janssen, the No. 9 hitter, stepped in. Janssen had earlier reached on a bunt single and an error on a bunt try, and had been thrown out on another bunt on a bang-bang play.

She took a called strike, then fouled off a bunt try.

With one fan calling out, “All she does is bunt,” Janssen lined deep to center and turned on the afterburners.

“She can absolutely run,” Miller said, “and off she went. It’s just a matter of which base you’re going to stop her at.”

It’s early, real early, in the season, but one thing has become apparent. There are few easy days in Section Two.

“This section, I think it’s going to be a challenge,” Miller said.

“Last year it took us about half a season to settle in,” Yohe said. “There is no settle in time this year.”