Winthrop’s Lydia Rice swings at a pitch from Monmouth’s Brooklyn Federico during Monday’s game in Monmouth. Adam Robinson/Sun Journal
MONMOUTH — With a runner on second, Monmouth’s Brooklyn Federico stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the 11th inning in a tie game.
Her previous at-bat in the eighth inning was a pop up out, giving her a little more nervousness this time around.
Federico skied a ball over the shortstop’s head and scored Casey Kaplan — who started the inning at second base something both teams had starting in the 10th inning — to give the Mustangs a 7-6 victory over rival Winthrop in MVC softball action Monday.
Monmouth coach Dave Kaplan gave Federico a choice before the at-bat.
“I asked her before she got to the plate, ‘You’ve seen (Winthrop pitcher Lauryn Wood) five times, are you feeling bunt or hit?’ She said hit and the first pitch, bang,” Kaplan said.
Federico’s previous at-bat in the eighth inning was a pop up out, giving her a little more nervousness the next time around.
“I was a little nervous because I had popped out before that, but I was like, ‘I need to hit the ball,'” Federico added. “My coach gave me the option to bunt but I didn’t want to, I wanted to score her. So I went up and said, ‘I’m going to hit it.’ And I hit it.”
Four innings earlier, Monmouth entered the bottom of the seventh inning down 6-3 after the Ramblers added two runs in the top half.
With one out, Federico doubled and then stole third base. Two batters later, Rileigh Chase doubled to score Federico then moved to third on a single from Katie Laliberte.
With the score 6-4, Shanna Parsons doubled to score the two runners and tie the game at 6-6.
Winthrop coach Chuck Gurney put the game-tying double on himself.
“I made a couple mistakes as a coach,” Gurney said. “I should’ve had a kid slide at one point and I didn’t, and we talked about intentionally walking (Shanna Parsons) but instead she got a hit and tied the game. But, my kids, I couldn’t ask for more than that. Monmouth is a really good team, well-coached team and now they’ve beaten us twice by a run each. I hope it proves to our kids that they can compete.”
The Mustangs won 4-3 in Winthrop six days earlier, scoring the game-winning run in the top of the seventh inning of a 4-3 victory.
In the rematch, Winthrop got on the board first in the top of the first inning thanks to a fielder’s choice by Maddie Perkins that scored Ella Rice.
Annabell Blais singled and later scored on a wild pitch in the second inning to put the Ramblers ahead 2-0.
Winthrop scored two more in the top half of the third inning when Blais hit a two-run single that scored Lydia Rice and Ella Rice and gave the Ramblers a 4-0 advantage.
Even with a slow start, Monmouth started to chip away at the Ramblers’ lead.
In the bottom of the third, Federico hit an infield single and two batters later scored on a sacrifice fly by Chase to cut the deficit to 4-1.
From the circle, Federico started to settle in in the fourth inning, tallying two of her 18 strikeouts.
“We started off really slow and I was kind of nervous about that,” Federico said. “I knew we would pick it up at the end but going out every inning was kind of stressful. You never knew what would happen, and then you got to the top of the lineup and you didn’t know what would happen but we got it done.”
Monmouth’s bats continued to wake up in the bottom of the fourth inning when Kaplan hit a two-run double to bring the Mustangs within 4-3.
Maddie Perkins made a diving catch at shortstop to rob Federico of another hit, catching the ball with her body parallel with the ground. Perkins quickly got up and threw to second base, successfully turning the double play and getting out of the inning.
“I do want to say that the diving catch my shortstop made was the best play I’ve seen all year from any team,” Gurney said. “That was an incredible play.”
In the top of the seventh, Lydia Rice singled to start the inning and then stole second base. A bad throw that went into the outfield allowed Rice to score to make it a 5-3 ballgame. Ella Rice then singled and was driven home by a double from Perkins, who was thrown out at third base on a perfect throw from Monmouth left fielder Mara Poulin.
After Federico struck out the side in the top of the eighth, Monmouth loaded the bases with no outs to start the bottom half of the inning. Still, the Mustangs couldn’t find a way to push a runner across and the game stayed 6-6 until the 11th inning.
“They might have been counting this one and we held on nicely,” Kaplan said. “Brooklyn held it together on the mound.”
Federico led Monmouth with three hits, while both Lydia and Ella Rice, as well as Blais, notched three hits for the Ramblers.
From the circle, Wood pitched the whole game for Winthrop and struck out six batters.
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