Photo by Rocky Ross
STARTING A PITCHER, SOPHOMORE TESSA WAGNER, WHO HAD ONLY PITCHED AT THE JUNIOR VARSITY LEVEL SO FAR THIS YEAR, THE FIFE TROJANS USED TIMELY HITTING TO TAKE A 6-2 WIN AGAINST THE BELLARMINE LIONS IN A RARE MID-SEASON OUT-OF-CONFERENCE SHOWDOWN. Senior Karissa Haelle (shown) went 2-4 with a run scored.
After the Fife Trojan softball team started its Nisqually League slate with three straight wins, it got a chance for a tune-up against the Bellarmine Lions April 3 in non-league action. With a pitcher on the mound who had only played for the junior varsity squad so far this year, the Trojans took the game 6-2 to extend its winning streak to four.
Sophomore Tessa Wagner pitched four innings and gave up just four hits in her varsity debut. Wagner had previously only pitched on the varsity squad in a three-inning jamboree before the season.
“I just wanted to go out there and do my best,” Wagner said. “My goal was to not let anybody score on me. My drop ball was good and I was throwing my curveball quite a bit.”
Fife coach Bill Burk was pleased with the performance of his young pitcher.
“She stepped up and did really good,” he said. “It was a good chance to see her get some pitching time in at the varsity level – that’s obviously important in that part.”
The Trojans jumped ahead early when senior Ami Gran led off with a triple in the bottom of the first inning. Second baseman Shelly Kilcup drove her home on a groundout to second base, and the Trojans were on the scoreboard first. Centerfielder Amanda Roselli also scored for Fife in the first when Kirsten Schumacher drove her home on an infield single. After one inning of play, the Trojans were ahead 2-0.
“We came off of two big wins on Monday and Wednesday against our rivals in the league, and so that put us really right up front in the league of us being the team to go through now,” Burk said. “So to me it seemed like we had almost a little bit of a letdown today, coming down from this emotional game just last night.”
In the top of the second, Bellarmine tried to put something together when catcher Ciarra Pederson led off the inning with a double. However, Pederson was thrown out at home to end the scoring threat.
“We had a lot of good hits, we just couldn’t get a clutch hit,” said Bellarmine coach Craig Coover, as the Lions left 12 on base in the ballgame. “We just need to learn how to string a few together to get that clutch hit and get those runs home.”
Fife scored one run in each of the second and third innings with Karissa Haelle and Wagner coming across the plate. That helped the Trojans go up 4-0 after three innings.
“We got a couple of big hits early on, we had some good power,” Burk said.
Both teams failed to score in the fourth, and the Lions came up to bat in the top of the fifth, looking to get themselves back in the game. Third baseman Leah Bauta was called safe on an infield single and centerfielder Paige Redmond reached base on an error.
After a bunt single set up a bases-loaded situation with no outs, Alexis North pulled a single past the shortstop to send Bauta and Redmond home for Bellarmine’s first two runs of the game. The scoring, however, stopped there for the Lions as the next two batters struck out and Lauren Schiller ended the inning with an infield pop up.
Fife scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the final margin 6-2. Catcher Kirsten Schumacher led the way with the bat for the Trojans, hitting 2-3 with an RBI. Karissa Haelle and Gran both went 2-4 with a run scored.
“We are really going into the meat of our league schedule, and we really want to go in there with the mentality as a team of having the other teams say ‘we’re going to be in trouble when they show up,’” Burk said. “We want to have the winning attitude, and project it to the other teams right up front to know that they’re going to have their hands full when they play Fife.”
