By Chris Faulkner
Lauren Krieger's deep foul out to the Fairfield left fielder in the bottom of the ninth brought home West Burlington-Notre Dame teammate Isabella Blaufuss Thursday night and gave the Falcons a 2-1 extra-inning victory in a first-round Class 3A Region 8 game at Barb Carter Field.
WB-ND (22-11) plays Saturday night at West Liberty against the host Comets (20-11), which beat Columbus 8-6 Thursday.
Central Lee lost to Washington 10-1 on Thursday in the top-off of the region.
West Burlington-Notre Dame had gotten out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the ninth. Winning pitcher Lauren Summers got the first two batters out, but then she gave up a single, a walk, and another hit to load the bases. But Lilly Bergren hit a grounder to third baseman Shonna Anderson, who threw home to Paige Summers for the force out.
Fairfield pitcher Cody Engle struck out the first Falcon batter in the ninth. But Blaufuss' hard grounder to third was mishandled, and Anna Engberg's grounder to short had the same result, putting both Falcons at first and second.
Engle threw a wild pitch, which moved the runners along. Krieger then lofted the fly ball in foul territory, far enough for Blaufuss to tag up after the catch and score the game-ending run.
It was a pitcher's duel: Summers struck out 12 batters, scattered seven hits, walked four, and hit a batter. Engle struck out 10 batters, spread out six hits, walked two, and hit a batter.
Two of the six hits came in WB-ND's first inning. Krieger singled, went to second on an error with Summers batting, and Elise Oleson singled in the first and only Falcons run for the first eight innings.
One of Summers' walks was to Laney Norris leading off the fourth. After Morgan Ament bunted her to second, Leah Helmick singled her home to tie the game at 1-1.
WB-ND stranded nine runners, including runners in scoring position five of the first eight innings.
The Trojans stranded 12 runners, including the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning.
Engberg almost ended the game in a more traditionally dramatic fashion. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, she launched a deep fly ball to the left that looked like it might clear the fence. But Fairfield's Emmelia Miller stretched her glove and caught the ball at the fence.
Summers, whose career best is 16 strikeouts in a game, said of the nail-biting, low-scoring contest, “I like these types of games. I know I have to buckle down and do my job on the mound. I know we have good enough hitters too, when we come up to bat, get the job done.”
Falcon coach Dave Oleson said, “Summers was great on the mound tonight.”
But he praised Engle for the Trojans. “I don't think we've seen anybody as fast as her, possibly the Sigourney pitcher Goodwin, but she was throwing heat.”
Oleson said, “We could have scored some runs early on, but we didn't get the job done. But we battled and battled and battled and came up with the W.
“We forced them to make mistakes,” he said. “Sometimes you've got to be lucky and force the issue and good things happen.”