WINTHROP — For much of Friday’s softball game, the only thing that moved around the infield was the pitcher’s rubber.

Winthrop’s Krissy Doughty and Telstar’s Jessica Dirago were engaged in a pitcher’s duel in their Mountain Valley Conference showdown. Even when the pitcher’s rubber was deemed too close after the first inning and moved back a few feet, the two hurlers continued to dominated.

But the pitcher’s duel became a one-person slug fest when Cat Ouellette delivered a decisive blow in the bottom of the seventh. Winthrop’s senior third baseman drilled a three-run shot over the left-field fence for a three-run homer with two outs, lifting the Ramblers to a 3-2 win over the Rebels.

“I was kind of expecting them to pitch around me,” said Ouellette, who finished with two doubles and a homer. “It is believed her shot over the fence was the first one hit out of the park there. I was hoping they wouldn’t. I wanted to hit.”

Telstar had the chance to walk Ouellette with two outs and first base open. Coach Jim Lunney hasn’t typically given intentional passes to even the best of hitters in the past, especially when they represent the winning run. He told Dirago to be careful, but after a first strike, Ouellette went deep with the second offering.

“To me, we should have won the game and we didn’t,” Lunney said. “She hits two doubles and a home run. That’s a darn good game.”

Dirago finished with 14 strikeouts and allowed just three hits, all to Ouellette. Doughty struck out 15 and allowed only two hits.

“She did great,” Ouellette said of Doughty. “She did excellent. She just came back after being sick for three days.”

Down 2-0 going to the bottom of the seventh, Tessie Moody was hit by a pitch to start the inning. After a strikeout, Lily Ouellette walked. Both runners advanced on a Kayleigh Oberg ground out.

Lunney went out to talk to his team as Cat Ouellette came to the plate. She had already drilled a pair of doubles to the gap in left.

“When I got up there, I just said, ‘I’m going to just hit the ball,’ “Ouellette said. “It’s doesn’t matter where it goes. I just needed to hit it.”

After a win over Mountain Valley and this victory over the Rebels, the Ramblers (2-0) have two victories against two of Western C’s better teams.

“It was a huge win,” Cat Ouellette said. “Last year, we were in the same situation with the same team. we were up there. We lost 3-2 in extra innings. This is like icing on the cake. We just anted to win so badly today.”

After Doughty struck out the side in the first, Winthrop loaded the bases on three walks, but Dirago struck out the side as well.

It was then that the coaches noticed that the pitcher’s rubber was too close. A measurement was taken and the rubber was moved back a few feet.

“It’s never been touched,” said Winthrop coach Bob Ouellette, whose team had only a few practices on that field in preseason and was playing its first game there this spring. “We had a round-robin tournament here. I think they moved the rubber last summer and the people putting on the tourney thought it had been put back.”

After the brief delay, Doughty and Dirago struck out the respective sides in the second.

Winthrop’s first hit came on Ouellette’s double in the third but a pop out ended that threat. She had another double in the sixth and advanced to third again but Dirago struckout a pair to end the inning.

Telstar’s first hit didn’t come until the fourth when Sadie Ellsworth reached on an infield hit off the glove of a diving  Alyssa Arsenault at second. The Rebels only other hit was a Tori Ryerson single in the seventh.

“Their pitcher threw well,” said Lunney, whose team outdueled Lisbon 1-0 earlier in the week. “She’s not overpowering. We didn’t get a bat on the ball for about four innings. We didn’t swing at strikes at times. She’d throw a first pitch down the middle and I’d have kids just take it.”

Telstar got its first run in the fifth. With one out, Hayley Peterson was hit by a pitch. Annie Cushman followed with a nice bunt down the first base line. It was thrown away, allowing Peterson to score from first.

The Rebels (1-1) added to the lead in the seventh. Ryerson singled to lead off. Tehya Johnson and Peterson moved her along with bunts. Then Ryerson scored on a wild pitch.

“It was like ‘Now what do we do?'” Cat Ouellette said. “We stayed positive and we kept going. I’m really proud of how everyone just didn’t stop.”

Though the Ramblers had struggled to get the offense going, other than Ouellette’s doubles, Winthrop plugged away, starting at the bottom of the order with Moody.

“We can usually make some things happen offensively we we get people on the bases,” Bob Ouellette said. “They had a strong enough defense that that made it hard for us.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link