Mon, Jul 07 2008
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Published May 16, 2008 11:55 pm - Play at plate works, Riverton makes run stand up in regional By Bill McMillen
sports@joplinglobe.com FRONTENAC, Kan. — DaLaynee Ludwig knew what she was going to do with the ball before it was ever hit to her. Megan Wells knew there was going to be a collision at home plate long before there was. And Brian Mitchell knew that Ludwig and Wells had practiced the play enough times to execute it. Ludwig, Riverton High School’s second baseman, threw out Frontenac baserunner Breanna Rhuems at home plate in the seventh inning, preserving the Rams’ 1-0 victory over the Raiders in the weather-delayed championship game of the Class 3A regional softball tournament Friday at Frontenac. The win sends the Rams (16-4) to Manhattan for the Class 3A state tournament next weekend. Riverton, the No. 4 seed, will face fifth-seeded Salina Sacred Heart (18-5) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Twin Oaks Complex. The teams started the title game Tuesday but played only two innings before being sent scurrying by a tornado warning. After Frontenac went down in order in the top of the third, Riverton plated the lone run of the contest in the bottom of the frame. Cheslyn Mitchell dumped a one-out double down the left-field line, took third on Haleigh Sills’ groundout and scored when Brittany Perry lined a sharp single to right-center. Shantell Jewett followed with a single off Frontenac starter Jena Standlee but reliever Emily Barto fanned Stormi Bond to escape further damage. The damage, though, was enough as Riverton posted its second 1-0 victory of the tournament. The Rams outlasted Baxter Springs in eight innings in Tuesday’s semifinal. “We didn’t hit the ball all that well,” noted Brian Mitchell, the Riverton coach, “but the pitchers did a good job against us. (Baxter Springs’ Jenyce) Spence the other day and both Frontenac pitchers did a good job keeping us off-balance, keeping us from getting a big inning.” Fortunately for the Rams, the one little inning was big enough. Frontenac (15-8) stranded two baserunners in the fourth and sixth innings, then mounted a final threat in the seventh. Rhuems slammed a leadoff double to right-center and moved to third when Dana Musser, after fouling two bunt attempts, grounded out to first. Mitchell called timeout and gathered his infielders inside the pitchers’ circle for what turned out to be a moment of prophecy. “I went out there and asked them ‘Have we practiced this before?’ ” he said. “And they all answered ‘Yes.’ They knew exactly what to do there. We practice it, practice it and practice it. That’s what you want as a coach, for your team to be prepared for that situation. Then it’s just a matter of executing it. 
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