Extreme split doubleheader, Allen hits walk-off home run
Jul. 16—CHEYENNE — The depth from the Cheyenne Extreme-Galicia pitching staff wasn't at its best during the first game of Thursday's doubleheader.
There were some easy opportunities provided to the Colorado Rockettes' offense, and it took advantage of them on its way to a 12-3 victory in a run-rule four-inning contest at the Converse Softball Complex.
"I don't know if mentally they were ready for this game (Thursday)," Extreme coach Adam Galicia said. "That's a pretty good squad out of Colorado, they've been Colorado state champs two out of the past four years ... our sticks weren't going, might as well say nothing was working that game."
Cheyenne pitcher Michaela Moorehouse wasn't off-beat in the first two innings, however. She sat down the Rockettes' bats in order in both frames and only threw 12 pitches during the second. But Extreme couldn't find a way to push runners across. They stranded two runners in the second and third innings.
It was the third frame where the Rockettes did the opposite, and turned two walks and a hit by a pitch into a 5-0 lead. Lily Simmons capped the scoring in the inning with a ground ball up the middle that shot in between second and third base.
"(We) couldn't hit our spots," Galicia said. "We had good warmups (Thursday), but I'm not sure what it was, we just weren't mentally focused and ready to go."
The easy bases continued to come for the Erie, Colorado, based team. It drew three more walks and connected on four singles to extend its lead to 12-0 after the fourth frame. Three of those four hits scored at least one run.
"We just weren't ready to play," junior Jaylyn Christensen said. "Obviously we came out and thought we were (ready), but our mentality just wasn't there and you could really tell."
Brogan Allen helped Cheyenne avoid the shutout in the bottom of the fourth by launching a three-run home run over the right field fence, scoring Trista Stehwien and Taylor Klein with no outs. Rockettes pitcher Elaina Troxell shrugged it off and got the final three outs of the contest, including striking out the last two batters.
Cheyenne (25-8-1) heads into the USSSA under-18B National Championship in Fort Walton, Florida, with pool play starting Tuesday. Despite the struggles in Thursday's first contest, there's some confidence heading into the 38-team tournament.
"We've been pretty good the last two weeks about making sure we're getting up to our level and staying at that level and and being consistent," Galicia said. "We've had some good practices this week and it didn't show that game, but we're just going move past that and move forward."
ERIE 12, CHEYENNE 3
Erie................. 005 7 — 12 7 0
Cheyenne........ 000 3 — 3 6 0
Erie pitching: Giron, Troxell, Stickleman. Cheyenne pitching: Moorehouse, Christensen (3), Gebhart and Neider.
W: Giron. L: Moorehouse.
HR: Cheyenne 1 (Allen).
Cheyenne 8 Erie 7
Three home runs on the day wasn't enough for Allen. Her fourth during the doubleheader turned out to be the biggest — a two-run walk off home run to left field that gave Cheyenne the 8-7 win over Erie in the nightcap of the twin bill.
The two runs were her fifth and sixth RBIs of the game, while she batted 3 for 3. Klein knocked in the other two Extreme runs, also going 3 for 3.
Janey Adair pitched five innings, giving up nine hits and five earned runs. Ariana Galicia pitched one inning of relief, striking out two.
CHEYENNE 8, ERIE 7
Erie................ 033 001 — 7 11 0
Cheyenne........ 402 002 — 8 12 3
Cheyenne pitching: Adair, Galicia (6) and Stehwien. Erie pitching: Meyer, Fox (5) and Hackney.
L: Fox.
2B: Erie 4 (Simmons 2, Deau, Fox); Cheyenne 2 (Klein). HR: Cheyenne 3 (Allen).
Robert Munoz is a writer for WyoSports. He can be reached at rmunoz@wyosports.net. Follow him on Twitter @rmunoz307.
