By Angela Watts
Managing Content Editor, DigitalSports.com
** Look below the story to find a video player filled with dozens of highlights from Tuesday’s games, including two towering home runs — a solo shot by Langley senior Jam Mowery and a grand slam by Stone Bridge junior Ashley Gardner.
With two Stone Bridge runners already on base in the top of the third inning Tuesday at Langley and Bulldogs’ standout senior catcher Kayla Lechler at bat, Saxons’ Coach Bob Morrow made the decision to intentionally walk the hard-hitting Lechler to load the bases and bring clean-up hitter Ashley Gardner to the plate.
“Kayla is a great hitter, but we did it, primarily, because it sets up the force play,” Morrow explained. “And I know Ashley is a great hitter, too … but I was hoping to pitch her low, get a ground ball and the force out. But we made a mistake and the ball got up — and you can’t do that against a No. 4 hitter.”
Langley sophomore pitcher Brooke Brown, who otherwise threw a solid game, got high and inside on a pitch to Gardner and the junior slugger made her pay for it.
Brown blasted a four-run shot to left field that found its way over the fence in a hurry, marking the first grand slam home run of her high school career.
Ultimately, it was all the offense the Bulldogs needed in what proved a 4-2 victory over the host Saxons on their Senior Night.
“Kayla is good,” said first-year Stone Bridge Coach Mike Skinner. “But Ashley is a good hitter, too. So you have to pick your poison. There’s not much you can do there. Kayla is such a great hitter, though, that I probably would have done the same thing in that situation.”
Added Lechler: “I always want to hit, but it’s also a good feeling knowing not only that they respect me out there, but that there are people coming up behind me that can hit. They just gave me a walk … but I knew there was someone coming up that they probably shouldn’t have walked me to get to.”
Lechler said as soon as she heard the ball come off Gardner’s bat, she knew it was gone.
“I was already on second base,” Lechler said, laughing. “And I realized as soon as I got there that maybe I should have tagged up? But I knew it was going out.”
Gardner’s game-winning shot was the second home run of the game. Langley third baseman Jam Mowery — one of 10 Saxon seniors honored in pre-game Senior Night festivities — led off the first inning for Langley with a solo home run over that also sailed over the left field fence. Langley, which stranded 12 base runners in the game, got its only other score in the fifth inning on an RBI single by senior first baseman Kim McMasters.
“I thought we played real well, we just had one bad inning,” Morrow said. “We made one bad pitch. But I wouldn’t say that cost us the game because we had runners on all the time and our hitters didn’t come through. We left 12 runners on base. And with that combination … you just can’t win ballgames that way.”
Stone Bridge junior pitcher Cassie Phillips went the distance for the Bulldogs in the circle and did a good job keeping the vaunted Langley batters off-balance all night. Phillips twice worked her way out of situations in which Langley had a runner on third base — and did so both times against the heart of the Saxons’ line-up — utilizing a combination of fastballs, curveballs and change-ups.
“Kayla did a great job calling the pitches,” Phillips said. “We were just trying to keep them off-balance. That was our basic strategy. We wanted to make their hitters hit and let our defense play. And it worked tonight.”
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
Stone Bridge 004 000 0 — 4
Langley 100 010 0 — 2
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