Edward Little’s Taylor Depot, left and Sam Herrick, right, rush to congratulate pitcher Kylie Bureau after she pitched a complete game victory over rival Lewiston during Tuesday’s softball game in Auburn.
AUBURN — Edward Little made mistakes against rival Lewiston on Tuesday, but the Red Eddies made up for them just enough to hold off a Blue Devil rally.
Trailing 3-0 entering the top of the seventh, Lewiston was able to pull within one thanks to two Red Eddies errors, but shortstop Taylor Depot got to a grounder and made the connection with first baseman Caleigh Copland for the final out in a 3-2 Class A North softball victory at Sweetser Field.
“Why not make it exciting for the crowd here, right?” EL coach Elaine Derosby said, tongue-in-cheek.
Jordyn Rubin led off the game with a double, but EL starting pitcher Kylie Bureau kept the Blue Devils (11-5) mostly quiet after that, allowing no more than one hit in any inning until the seventh.
“Bureau pitched a (heck) of a game,” Lewiston coach Mike Child said. “We thought we’d try some bunting on her at the beginning. Maybe a little more down the third-base line it might have worked, but we bunted right to her.”
Bureau scattered seven hits while striking out six batters and not walking any. She also cleanly fielded all five balls hit back to her.
“Today was her senior day, and she really wanted this,” Derosby said. “She’s struggled a little bit of late with her location, but today she was spot on. She was really in the zone. And I could tell when she showed up at the field that that was going to happen.”
Lewiston committed the first error of the game, and it was the Blue Devils’ only miscue of the day, but it did more damage than good for the Red Eddies (12-4). Grace Beaudet led off the bottom of the second with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch, then third on Emmy Lashua’s infield single. After diving back on a pickoff attempt, which was off-target, she got up and tried scoring, but was gunned down at home.
It took EL another inning to cross home plate. Bureau hit a two-out double to break up a string of four straight strikeouts for Lewiston pitcher Meg Theriault. Depot then followed with a single over the glove of Lewiston second baseman Emily Mousseau to score Bureau.
The Red Eddies senior pitcher worked out of jams in the fourth and sixth innings. EL committed two errors to start the fourth, but Bureau and the Red Eddies got the next three outs on a strikeout, a fielder’s choice and a fly out.
In the top of the sixth, Dani Cyr hit a two-out single for the Blue Devils, and Mousseau followed by reaching on an error that put the runners at second and third, but Bureau induced an inning-ending pop out.
“When we had to buckle down, we buckled down. We made some errors, but we made some plays later in every inning that made up for some of those mistakes,” Derosby said. “That’s a tribute to where they’ve come. A couple weeks ago when we had a really bad stretch, those just kept building and building and building. And today we just buckled down, we let it go, we moved on.”
Depot got the EL offense back up and running in the bottom of the frame by leading off with a double. Olivia Jensen hit a bunt single, and two batters later Lashua slapped a single between third and short to score Depot. Jensen then scored on an Anna LeBlanc sacrifice fly to put EL up 3-0.
“The top of the order, we switched it around a couple games go, some more contact,” Derosby said. “Just flip it, because Taylor had been making some really good contact down at the bottom of the order, so we wanted to get her some more at-bats.”
Those two insurance runs proved important a half inning later. Rubin reached on a one-out error, then scored on a double by Theriault. A fly out to right moved Theriault to third, then she scored on a single from Lexi Poulin. Meagan Gosselin reached on an error to keep the game going, and another error on the play put both runners in scoring position.
Cyr made contact on a Bureau pitch, and the grounder just got by the pitcher, but Depot was there to back up her up and finish off Bureau’s Senior Day win.
“What more do you say about a game like this? This is a rivalry here,” Child said. “We were down 3-0, we didn’t give up, we battled back, made it a game, and had a chance to take the lead there with a hit or a mistake.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
Lewiston catcher Meagan Gosselin blocks the plate and gets in position to catch a throw from her third baseman to catch Edward Little’s Grace Beaudet trying to steal home during Tuesday’s softball game in Auburn.EL first baseman Caleigh Copland stretches to catch a throw to first base to get Lewiston batter Kacey Hopper out during Tuesday’s game in Auburn.Lewiston third baseman Jordan Mynahan can’t get a glove on the ball as Edward Little’s Grace Beaudet gets back to the bag during Tuesday’s softball game at Auburn Suburban.Lewiston pitcher Megan Theriault winds up to deliver a pitch during Tuesday’s softball game against Edward LittleEdward Little pitcher Kylie Bureau winds up to deliver a pitch during Tuesday’s game against Lewiston.
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