Liesl's Little League team combined with the Southwest Portland team to form a combined Allstars team for post-seaon play. Six girls from our team were invited: Campbell, Chloe, Lila, Liesl, Emma, and Adrienne.
They have been practicing together for a couple of weeks, and played tournament games this week. On Tuesday night they faced a combined Tualatin/Lake O team that looked really strong on paper. But our pitching came out strong, and our girls were hitting, and we were up 22-5 after 5 innings. And then we had a meltdown in pitching and fielding, and we let them back in. It was 22-14 after 6 innings and so we had to play the 7th inning. Fortunately, our pitcher Lila got it done -- 3 up, 3 down. Liesl played shortstop all game and did well, although she didn't have much to do. Lila is the sort of pitcher who either strikes the hitter out, throws wild pitches and walks them, or very occasionally allows a hit that goes deep into the outfield. Liesl also batted pretty well, with some infield grounders where she beat the throw to first base.
On Thursday night we had to face Tualatin again, because they played Forest Grove and lost on Weds. (It's a double elimination tournament, so if we lost the first game, we'd have to immediately play Tualatin after.)
Lila came out struggling -- lots of walks and wild pitches that allowed Tualatin to score a lot of runs. We were losing 10-1 after two innings and we were already dreading the double-header. But then we switched pitchers, to Chloe, and they switched pitchers, to their second-string, and the momentum started changing. The girls could hit off the new pitcher, accumulating a few runs every inning, and Chloe threw steady strikes. Almost no walks, no wild pitches -- she made them work to get on base and work to steal bases. And our defense came alive -- the right fielder ran hard across half the field and made a diving catch for a pop fly. Liesl at short stop and Campbell at third scooped up multiple ground balls and made accurate throws to first. Adrienne, the catcher, raced down the third base line to make a diving catch of a foul ball. It was absolutely amazing -- best defense I've ever seen in a little league game -- and we held them scoreless for three innings straight. By the top of the 6th inning, we had come back and were up 11-10. We scored three runs (Liesl came up to bat with loaded bases and 2 outs, and we were so nervous! She hit a soft ground ball to the gap between first and second, and everyone advanced). And then we held them to 1 run. And then the 7th inning was scoreless all around, and we were the victors.
Liesl hit well all game - she got on base every time she came up to bat, nothing spectacular but good grounders away from the infielders that allowed her to beat the throw. She's really fast.
The infield congratulating Chloe and pumping her up.
Lila making the final catch - the third out - of the 7th inning.
And now we're on to the State championship, in mid-July! Amazing!!
