By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

POLAND – Braving the weather was one thing Wednesday, but executing through deteriorating conditions was another.

The softball teams from Lake Region and Poland hoped to shrug of the effects of rain and cold and gusty winds, but eventually the weather had its say.

The Knights rallied with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat the Lakers 6-5. Both Poland runs came on wild pitches.

“We needed to do that to keep Lake Region behind us,” said Poland coach Susan Robbins, whose club was ranked sixth in the latest Western B standings, with Lake Region in ninth. “The girls never gave up. It’s a real tribute to the kind of team that they are. I was really happy with that.”

Though the game found a slight lull in the fierce weather that has wreaked havoc with high school athletic schedules, the wind and rain intensified late in the contest.

Lake Region (6-7) had taken a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh on a two-out single by Kate Callahan, but Poland (8-5) had already come from behind on three different occasions.

“We were confident,” said Poland pitcher Kelli O’Connor. “We really wanted to win. We were ready to go out there and do our jobs.”

The Knights’ winning rally began when Cortney Clark reached on an error. She reached third on a fielders’ choice and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game. O’Connor walked, stole second and took third on a passed ball. She scored when Lake Region hurler Shelly Coford bounced another pitch in the dirt.

“We had one passed ball in the first six innings,” said Lake Region coach J. R. Warren. “They had like five. I was like Why aren’t we having more?’ I was amazed with her control. She didn’t walk anybody to that point, but in the sixth inning, it fell apart.”

The two teams combined for 11 errors and most miscues led to runs. Poland couldn’t even keep a grip on its temporary shelter, which blew across the field in the seventh and had to be retrieved.

“We just had to come out and try to mentally prepare for it,” said O’Connor. “The rain is going to be the same for everyone. So you’ve just got to deal with it.”

The two teams faced the prospect of playing four games in five days, including Memorial Day, if they didn’t play Wednesday. That is assuming scheduled games Friday and Saturday get played.

“We’ve played in the rain a couple of times this year, and we’ve actually won,” said Robbins. “So the rain isn’t necessarily a bad thing for us.”

Lake Region got the 1-0 lead in the first when Lauren Gillespie scored on an error, but Dani Belanger tied it in the second when she scored on a passed ball.

The Lakers got a pair of runs in the fourth when Callahan plated a run with a fielder’s choice and an error on a Kim Rivet hit allowed Casey McLean to make it 3-1.

Poland got one back in the fourth when Robyn Gauthier singled in Belanger. In the fifth, Clark scored on an Abby Perkins’ fly out.

The Lakers went ahead again in the sixth on a Gillespie bloop single, but in the bottom of the inning, Brianna Pratte reached on a fielders’ choice, stole second and scored on a Laker error as she stole third.

“These are the kinds of game you want to win down the stretch,” said Robbins. “It’s going to build confidence going into the playoffs knowing that you can eke out these games.”