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Heavy rain, opposition hit Poland Little League softball
By Jason Haddix
INDIANAPOLIS
The weather wasn’t the only thing that changed for Poland’s 11-12-year-old Little League softball team on Sunday.
After cruising to an easy victory on Saturday, Poland battled heavy rain, lightning and a dominating performance by its opponent.
As the runs piled up against Poland, heavy storms moved in, resulting in the game being suspended during the bottom of the third inning after a two-hour delay.
The game will resume on Tuesday at 11 a.m. with Poland trailing Indiana 7-0.
“As the rain started to fall I was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing,” Poland coach Matt Bobbey said.” Maybe with the delay it could have changed the momentum if we would have went back out there.”
The momentum was clearly on the side of Indiana from the start.
Indiana’s Savannah Baker kept the Poland hitters at bay with the lone offensive threat coming with two outs in the top of the third inning when Adeline Schweers legged out an infield single to third.
The threat — and the inning — ended when she was tagged out at third on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Cammie Lattanzio.
Baker struck out five of the 11 batters she faced.
“She was one of the hardest throwers we have seen,” Bobbey said. “She was mixing her pitches up well and throwing her changeup when she needed to and keeping our hitters off balance.”
Brooke Bobbey did not fair as well Sunday. A day after tossing a four-inning no-hitter in an 11-0 win against Missouri, the Indiana hitters had her number from the start.
The left-handed hurler gave up hits to four of the first five batters she faced — one of those a double —and Poland fell behind 2-0. She then induced back-to-back flyouts to end the first inning.
After a quick 1-2-3 inning for the Poland offense, Brooke Bobbey lasted just one batter in the bottom of the second, giving up a single off the bat of Hannah Elliott.
Alexis Diaz came on in relief and allowed six of the first eight batters she faced to reach base before getting a popout to second baseman Abby Farber.
Diaz allowed four runs on three hits with a pair of walks during her one inning of work prior to the game’s suspension.
“I think they were looking for first-pitch strikes,” Matt Bobbey said. “Their approach was very aggressive and they knew Brooke [Bobbey] is going to throw strikes and they were out in front of it and driving the ball.”
He said Indiana hit the ball as well as anyone they have faced this season.
Poland (1-0) will next take the diamond today with a pair of games, 2 p.m. against Nebraska (0-1), then at 7 against Michigan (1-1).
“By the way the evening ended and after the chat we had [Sunday] evening, I think they will be ready to play [today],” Matt Bobbey said. “They know they can put [Sunday] behind them and [today] is what gets us to next round. We win a game or two we can advance to bracket play.”