Late Game Stampede: Marquette 13, Webster 8

You might think that this was a heart-breaking loss. You’d be wrong.

It was disappointing, for sure, to lose an 8-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning. We had outplayed and outpitched the Marquette Mustangs up to that point. I’m going to take the blame here for having a plan and then not following through. Giving a team as good as Marquette three shots at the same pitcher is just asking for trouble, and it found us. Had I made the pitching change like I planned, well, who knows.

But Allyson Peters was pitching well, and, in fact, struck out the first batter but she reached on a passed ball. We recorded another out (would have been our second), but we just couldn’t get the third to stop the bleeding. Marquette tacked on three more in the sixth, so maybe that plan wouldn’t have worked, but we’ll never know.

Still, you’d have been proud, if you were there, and as I was, to see how we tried to come back, kept our energy and enthusiasm up until we used up our last out on a deep line out hot of our own on a fine running catch by a galloping Mustang. So we’re ready for the tournament tomorrow and are looking forward to defending our title.

I need to prepare our lineups (even though it’s a “bat the line-up” tournament, there is still some thought required), so I’ll wait until later to add the pictures. See you at Affton, 7:15, Field 3.