M&M mixer: Mascot mayhem among the Mission Mountains -

Maidens make mark by mastering MAC

by John Heglie

 

At St. Ignatius, there was no sugar coating the softball rivalry among Mission Mountain mascots between the visiting NWA Maidens of Ronan and the host Western BC Mission-Arlee-Charlo (MAC) Lady Bulldogs, nor melting under the heat of competition  associated with M&M confectionary adverts. Both teams did their share of swinging and slinging. But when the dust clouds settled from turf tossed by runners rounding bases, it would be the Maidens who notched their first victory of the season in this cross-classification cross-county clash with MAC. This contest differed from their season opener at Hamilton where Ronan found themselves trailing early, were forced to play catchup, but almost culminated a comeback with a rally surge that fell a mere one run shy. This time around, the Maidens got their bats swinging earlier, which flipped the preceding contest script and put the shoe on the other foot by instead staking their side to a defendable multi-run lead.

The Maidens generated a quintet of hits at the plate with each of the top third of their order reaching base along with middle-of-the-order batter Ally Luedtke, while bottom-of-the-order batter Nevaeh Perez smacked a run scoring extra base double.

After Ronan picked up an insurance run during fourth inning action, the Lady Bulldogs were able to cut the deficit in half with better productivity at the plate that scored Alecia Steele and Kason Page. But that would be the closest MAC could get to catching the Maidens this time.

The two pitchers combined for two dozen strikeouts with Maiden Nikki Kendall fanning 14, while Lady Bulldog Izzy Evans struck out ten. As the weather warms and rust scrapes off  games, early indications point toward both teams being contenders in their respective conferences.

 

Ronan 4, Mission 2

NWA Maidens (1-1), WBC Lady Bulldogs (0-1)

Ronan     300 100 0 –  4  5  1

Mission  000 002 0 –  2  3  2

Izzy Evans (10K,5H,2W) and Amelia Cronk. Nikki Kendall (14K,3H,6W,1HB) and Adrienne Crockett, Morgan Simpson. WP – Kendall (1-1).

RONAN – Kendall 1-4, Kailyn Marengo 1-3, Kaydance Santos 1-3, Mira Corum 0-3, Ally Luedtke 1-3, Brynn Courville 0-1, Kylee Kelch 0-1, Hanna Lytton 0-2, KaNana Couture 0-1, Crockett 0-2, Simpson 0-1, Ernie Tapia-Torosian 0-1, Nevaeh Perez 1-2, (cr) Bailee Woll.

MISSION ST. IGNATIUS – GG Hawk 1-3, Maia Christopher 0-4, Evans 1-3, Alecia Steele 0-2, Kason Page 1-3, Avia Lee 0-3, Cronk 0-2, Kensey Burke 0-1, Maizey McDonald 0-1, Madison Incashola 0-2.

2B – N.Perez; Evans. RBIs – Santos, Corum, Luedtke, N.Perez; Hawk, Cronk. BB – Marengo, Courville; Hawk, Evans, Steele 2, Cronk, M.Incashola. HB – Burke. SB – Courville; Cronk. Runs – Marengo, Santos, Luedtke, Woll; Steele, Ka.Page.

(Th28Mar28)

variants – R(Rbk/Rgc:5H1E, Mbk/406mtsports:4H0E), MAC(Mbk/406mtsports:2E, Rgc:1E): Santos(Rbk/Rgc:1B,1rbi; Mgc/Mbk/406mtsports:0H,0rbi), Courville (Mgc:3PA, Rbk/Rgc:2PA), Kelch (Mgc:0PA, Rbk/Rgc:1PA); Ka.Page(Mgc/Rgc:0H, Mbk/406mtsports:1B), Cronk(Mgc/Rgc:1B, Mbk/406mtsport:0H), M.Incashola(Mgc/Rgc:3PA, 406mtsports:0PA).