Softball: Early runs help Eastland

PEARL CITY – Eastland’s Emma Norton took a no-hit bid into the top of the seventh inning, and although Dakota finally got a pair of singles against her in the final frame and scored a few runs, the Cougars’ offense had spotted her enough of a lead to lift Eastland to a 6-3 win Friday in the final of the 1A Pearl City Regional.

Norton mixed in masterful innings with not-so-masterful ones. She cruised through a one-two-three first inning on 11 pitches, needed just seven pitches to retire the Indians in order, then pitched a nine-pitch, one-two-three sixth.

“My fastball, my dropball and my changeup where phenomenal today,” she said. “My changeup especially, I love that pitch so much and it was really doing the job today.”

But she also issued nine walks, one of those intentional, and hit a batter.

“She likes to make things interesting,” Eastland coach Keali Eich said. “I think she does it to stress me out. This is my third year with her, so I’ve gotten used to it and know that she’ll come around. She pulled through and it was a good win. I’m proud of her.”

For the most part, she was able to work out of those jams. Dakota had runners at second and third with one out in the second and Norton struck out the next two batters to end the threat. In the fourth, Dakota loaded the bases and Norton induced a pop up in foul territory that Green tracked down for the final out.

“We knew that [Norton] was going to work the edges and she was willing to give up a walk because she can work her way out of it,” Dakota coach Jeff Kinney said. “We were able to be patient, we were able to get runners on, but we just never get that hit.”

Leading 6-0 heading into the final inning, Norton struck out pinch hitter Kasey Sutherland to open the seventh, but then issued a pair of walks and gave up her first hit of the game, a single by Hannah Bowers.

After a bases-loaded walk, Lexi Rote blooped a single down the rightfield line to drive in a run, making it 6-2. Another run scored on a groundout to short, but Norton got Dakota’s Rachel Schweickart to hit a slow roller back to the circle. Norton flipped the ball to Taleena Rogers at first to end the game.

Green gave her team a big boost with her bat as well. Up 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth and with the bases loaded and no one out, the Eastland catcher blasted the first pitch she saw over the fence in left for a grand slam.

“I went into that at bat 0-for-2 on the day and I just went up there thinking ‘I’ve just got to get a base hit, one RBI, get something going,’” she said. “I saw that pitch and swung and hoped for the best, hoped [Dakota leftfielder Schweickart] didn’t catch it, and it went for a grand slam. It was pretty great.”

Erica Dambman led off the inning with a single and Norton drew a walk before Erin Henze blooped a single over the head of Bowers, the Dakota secondbaseman. Norton, not far off of first in case Bowers was able to track it down, broke for second when the ball hit the grass and only narrowly beat the throw. She was still standing there a moment later when Green extended the lead.

“I think I jumped about five feet in the air when that happened,” Norton said. “It’s such a relief when somebody does that, like this team has me. She hit that, and I thought ‘we can do this, we can do this.’”

Eastland scored a pair of runs in the first as Meredith Janssen hit a two-out single to center to drive in Norton and Gabby Snyder followed with a double to score Janssen.

“My main focus going into this game was that I’ve got to hit the center of the ball, so that’s what I was looking for the first at bat,” Janssen said. “Going into this game, we knew the weather was kind of rough, so if they had to call it early, we had to be ahead to get the game, so we knew we had to win every inning.”

But the Cougars had to settle for two runs for much of the game as Dakota pitcher Grace Sutherland held them in check in the second, third and fourth innings with a huge boost from her defense. Rogers led off the second with a walk, but Dakota catcher Lexi Brashaw threw her out trying to steal. Norton singled to lead off the third inning, but was left stranded at first thanks in part to Bowers snagging a line drive from Janssen to end the inning. Rogers hit a two-out double in the fourth, but Haley Wilson flew out to center to end the inning.

Grace Sutherland allowed six runs, all of them earned, on eight hits in five innings pitched.

“She was really working us on the corners a lot,” Green said. “Once in in awhile she’d throw a changeup and throw us off. Going in knowing she doesn’t like to throw that much, I thought she used it at good times and felt she really stuck with the corners and stayed away from the middle of the plate.”

It is the first regional title for the Cougars since winning a Class A supersectional in 2006. Eastland finally breaks through after losing in the regional final to Lena-Winslow a year ago.