MILLBURY — One day after pitching a perfect game and homering for the only run of the game, Elmwood’s
Marissa Lee was back in the pitcher’s circle in another important game. PHOTO GALLERY
While Lee did not pitch with the same effectiveness as she did in Tuesday’s 1-0 sectional win over
Fostoria, she made some big pitches when they were needed. And her two-run double in the top of the
seventh was the eventual game-winning hit in a 5-3 victory over Lake.
Elmwood is now 16-4 overall and in command of the Suburban Lakes League race at 7-0 with five league
games remaining. Lake is 13-5 overall and 4-2 in the league.
“When we go down the tournament trail, we’re going to have to be battle-tested. It’s a game like this
that I can fall back on and say we were up, then we were tied and we had to find a way (to win) and we
did,” Elmwood head coach Matt Hoiles said.
“The one thing I’ve always said about Elmwood is that they are going to constantly put pressure on you
with their bats and they don’t strike out easily,” Lake head coach Dave Rymers said.
In the top of the seventh Elmwood’s Brittany George and Katie Bottesch both reached on singles, with
Bottesch hitting a two-strike pitch after failing to get a bunt down.
Lake’s Lauren Densic then got a fly ball and a strikeout, before Lee slashed a long fly ball into the
right-center field gap. Lake’s Kaysie Brittenham, who has made her share of big-time catches in her
career, raced after the ball, but could not track it down as both runners scored. Densic then got a fly
ball to end the inning.
“I was just thinking that we needed a hit to score the runners,” Lee said. “The pitch was outside because
I was standing close to the plate.”
“‘Marie’ (Lee) is swinging a very good bat right now. She comes up with the big hit and kind of saves
us,” Hoiles said. “The only thing I was hoping for is that it got up in the wind enough that it was
going to keep carrying and luckily it did. I think it was just off her glove.”
In the bottom of the seventh, Lake loaded the bases on two errors and a walk, but Lee worked out of the
jam getting a ground ball back to the mound to end the game.
While Lake had seven hits in the game, the Flyers left 11 runners on base as Elmwood also had five
errors.
“We have a lot of seniors on this team that have seen her for three years,” Rymers said about Lee. “We’ve
had very little success over those last three years against her.”
Elmwood took a 3-0 lead in the third inning, sending nine batters to the plate. Lee, Sierra Beckford and
Ragan Yarnell each had hits in the inning and the Royals were aided by two-hit batters. Yarnell had an
RBI hit, Madison Arnold got an RBI when she was hit by a pitch, and Bottesch’s fielder’s choice grounder
brought in the third run.
Densic then settled down, allowing no hits and only two baserunners over the next four innings. Her
effort allowed her team to get back in the game.
Lake’s Whitney Griffey’s RBI single drove in Lake’s first run in the second inning.
The Flyers tied the game with two runs in the third. Lake had three hits in the inning, with their second
run of the game scoring on an error and Brittenham’s base hit tieing the score at 3.
“We were able to get some run support out of the bottom of our order,” Rymers said.
Lake left two runners on in the second, third and fourth innings. In the third, Elmwood’s Madison Arnold
made a nice running catch in short right field to help limit the damage in the inning. Lake had a good
opportunity in the sixth inning wiped out on a base-running mistake which turned into an inning-ending
double play.
“There are games that teams are going to put the bat on the ball,” Hoiles said. “Usually we have a very,
very good defense. We had a couple of innings that it didn’t go well and they tested us.
“It wasn’t one of our best games, but it was a team that wanted it bad enough.”
Lee led the Royals with two hits and Adrienne Lowe had two hits for Lake.
Lake faces Genoa today at Genoa in a Division III sectional final game. The Lake-Genoa winner faces
Elmwood in the district semifinal on Tuesday at Bowling Green High School. The Royals and Flyers play a
regular season game on May 19 at Elmwood.
ELMWOOD 5, LAKE 3
ELMWOOD 030 000 2—5 6 5
LAKE 012 000 0—3 7 1
BATTING LEADERS
HITS — (E) Lee 2, George, Beckford, Yarnell. Bottesch. (L) Lowe 2, Encalado, Schnell, Brittenham,
Griffey, Adair. 2B — (E) Lee. RUNS — Vargas, George, Bottesch, Barringer, Yarnell. (L) Schnell, M.
Whiteman, Britteham. RBI — (E) Lee 2, Bottesch, Yarnell, Madison Arnold. (L) Brittenham, Griffey. SAC —
(E) Yarnell. SB — (L) Schnell, Brittenham. HBP — (E) Barringer (by Densic); Madison Arnold (by Densic).
DP — Elmwood 1. LOB — Elmwood 7. Lake 11.
PITCHING SUMMARY
IP H R ER BB SO
Elmwood
Lee (WP, 16-3) 7 7 3 1 3 7
Lake
Densic (LP, 12-5) 7 6 5 5 2 2