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Errors costly to Knights

By Ray DiMonda
Posted 3/21/18

OAKLEAF– In the inaugural 2018 Tournament of Champions hosted by Oakleaf High School, the home team Knights needed a come from behind victory early in the day to beat Ponte Vedra 6-2.

In the …

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Errors costly to Knights


Posted

OAKLEAF– In the inaugural 2018 Tournament of Champions hosted by Oakleaf High School, the home team Knights needed a come from behind victory early in the day to beat Ponte Vedra 6-2.

In the second game of the day for the Oakleaf Knights, the team needed two extra innings of play to work against the eventual tournament champion Lakewood Ranch Mustangs in a game where both teams put everything they had on the table. For the Knights, it was the defensive errors that their bats just could not overcome.

“You can’t have those type of errors against a team like that” said Christina Thompson, Knights’ head coach. “We shot ourselves in the foot by having that many defensive errors tonight.”

With the Knights being the visiting team for this game, they needed runs in the top of the ninth inning that never materialized. With the score tied up at 6-6, it was the Mustangs that had a bottom of the ninth burst that brought home the winning run for a 7-6 overtime loss. The loss put Oakleaf into the third place game; a 5-0 win over West Nassau. Lakewood Ranch would bombed Aucilla Christian 11-0 for the tournament team title.

It didn’t take long for the Mustangs to show they were here to make a statement. Using their first seven batters, they quickly put three runs up on the board during their first at bats. With the Knights now in a hole looking up, it was time to dig deep.

Defensively, the team rallied behind pitcher Madi Davis who struck out eight batters with no walks. Davis stayed strong for the first seven innings of the game and was relieved by Cambria Arturo as the game was one batter into the bottom of the seventh. The Knights only needed an inning to recharge the bats.

In the top of the third, it was Kistler that got the rally started with a deep shot the left-center field for a stand-up double. With two runners still in scoring position and two outs, Angela Agurkis didn’t want to let her team down and did it in a huge way as she placed the ball skimming down the right foul line to bring both Mifsud and Lambrecht home to put the Knights back into the lead 4-3. The Mustangs retired the inning on the next batter, but not before the Knights wrestled the lead back once again.

“The good news is we are hitting the ball well” said Thompson. “The bad news is four errors. They are going to take advantage of that.”

In the bottom of the fourth, the excitement level went through the roof, but for the wrong reason. After a leadoff single, followed by a strike out, the Mustangs would load the bases up. With a left field RBI single to tie the game at 4-4, the game intensity went up several notches. With the bases still loaded, a play at the plate handed the Mustangs out number two. Once again, the Knights leaned on Madi Davis to come through. The Mustangs would go back on defense after leaving bases loaded, as the batter watched strike three pitched right by her.

The Knights came away empty after three up and three out at bat for the fifth and turned the batter’s box back over to the Mustangs. Lakewood Ranch stayed with the attack on left field as a deep left single put a runner on first base. Two batters later, another shot to left would be an RBI single to put the Mustangs back out front, 5-4 with not much game left to play.

In the top of the sixth, Angela Agurkis would show the pitcher a stance for bunt, then draw back and be ready to hit. After doing this to draw two balls, Agurkis gave the same look, but this time nailed a solid fly ball to left field that went out of the park for a stand-alone home run to tie the score back at 5-5.

With both teams not able to break the stalemate in regulation innings, it was on to extra innings using speed play with a runner starting on second base with no outs. In the top of the eighth, Goddard was placed on second and was driven home after a bunt and an Angela Agurkis RBI single to put the Knights out front 6-5. The one run was the best the girls could do. It was defense time once again. The Mustangs moved their speed play runner to third with a sacrifice fly.

The next batter hit an RBI double to tie it back up at 6. With a Cambria Arturo strikeout, the inning was over and it was time for the Knight’s bats to come alive in the top of the ninth. A Madison Mifsud sacrifice bunt moved Kaylee Lambrecht to third. But a Koskey strike out and a Goddard final out couldn’t bring home Lambrecht. An RBI Mustang single would be the last straw that would break the Knights back, bringing the speed play runner home and ending the game after nine long innings, 7-6. When asked about how she goes about fixing the defensive errors, Thompson replied “More reps. More practice. Just going right back to work because they have it in them, you just have to get it to click. It happens; sometimes the ball bounces your way, sometimes it doesn’t.”