TONTOGANY — Kaylin Euler turned on a high, inside pitch and belted the ball over the left field fence to give Otsego a 2-2 tie in the top of the third inning against visiting Genoa Saturday.
Euler’s home run, her second, seemed to provide the spark that the Knights needed.
Otsego proceeded to score three more runs in the third, added a run in the fourth, and scored four in the fifth en route to defeating the Comets, 10-4, in a Northern Buckeye Conference tilt.
Otsego improves to 6-2 overall and 1-1 in the league, while the Comets suffer their second loss in as many days to fall to 3-2. Otsego had nine hits and took advantage of the Comets’ untimely mistakes.
The Knights had trouble catching up to the velocity presented by Genoa pitcher Kaylin Shields, but once they did, watch out.
“She is very good. She has worked hard at her game,” Otsego coach Jason Colyer said. “She can spot a lot of different pitches in a lot of different places. It was good to get this one today.
“That is the hard part about this game, you see one pitch the one day, and then the very next day sometimes it is a different style and different contrast of pitchers. It can take you a little while to adjust sometimes.”
Euler’s first at-bat came with one out in the bottom of the first, and she took the count full before reaching on a walk, the only one allowed by Shields the entire game.
Euler advanced to second on a passed ball and scored Otsego’s first run on a hard hit double hit down the left field line by Kianna Dingledine.
Shields struck out two Otsego hitters in the first, struck out the side in the second, and struck out Otsego’s lead-off hitter in the third. Genoa had already plated two runs in the top of the first, sending eight batters to the plate, but stranding three baserunners.
So, when Euler stepped into the batter’s box, by all appearances it seemed as if Shields and the Comets had taken charge both at the plate and defensively.
But Euler had a strategy. However, when she made contact, she did not think the ball was going to leave the yard.
“In the beginning I was kind of intimidated in my first at-bat,” Euler said. “I wanted a base hit, but I walked, so I just put that past me.
“I was like, ‘You know what, the first at-bat doesn’t matter anymore. That is in the past. Let’s focus on the present and get after it.’
“I was looking for an inside pitch, and I saw it was inside and I just hit it. I thought it was caught in the outfield,” Euler continued.
For the Knights, Chesney Kuron was 2-for-3, scoring twice. She led off the fourth with a bunt single, stole second and third, and scored when Riley Rowe tried to reach on a strikeout pitch that was in the dirt.
Riley Miller was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs, Dingledine was 1-for-4 but reached three times, and Alexis Etchie, Ashton Gregory and Danelle Brooks had one base hit apiece.
Rowe got the win in the circle, striking out eight, walking five, allowing eight hits and two earned runs through seven innings.
Rowe has had big shoes to fill, replacing the graduated Lexi North, now pitching for Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania. Colyer says Rowe has settled into her role nicely.
“She’s a very experienced pitcher, she’s only a sophomore and she did a good job working through some things and didn’t seem like she let that emotion show and she trusted her defense to make some plays behind her,’ Colyer said.
Shields struck out 11, walked one, and gave up nine hits, but only three of Otsego’s 10 runs were charged against her because of two untimely errors committed early in each of the Knights’ at-bats where they scored four runs.
Genoa’s lead-off hitter Emerson Bickel was 3-for-4 and scored twice, Marin Butler was 2-for-3, Makayla Magrum and Courtney Chapinski doubled, Shields had a base hit and stolen base, and Violet Plantz reached three times on walks.
The Comets stranded 10 runners, including leaving the bases loaded twice.
This unpredictable nature of the game continued to place question marks on which team will take charge in the NBC race. It appears that as many as five or six teams are looking to be in the mix.
“I think it’s as competitive as it’s been over the last five or six years and I think everyone is going to have to come to play every single day if they want to stay competitive,” Colyer said.
