Knights rally from 4-1 deficit to defeat Lower Lake 6-4 in league softball action
By Brian Sumpter
Lake County Sports on Facebook
KELSEYVILLE >> Ashlyn Wurm shut the door on Lower Lake’s offense as the Kelseyville Knights rallied from a 4-1 deficit after two innings to beat the Trojans 6-4 in North Central League I softball action Monday afternoon in Kelseyville.
Wurm, a senior, relieved started Madison Byrne with the bases loaded, two runs in, and one out in the top of the second inning. The first batter Wurm faced, Marlene Jack, reached on an error that scored a run to give Lower Lake a 4-1 lead and left the bases loaded. Wurm stepped up at that point, striking out Eden Sparks and Jamiya Lee-Ayers, the Trojans’ cleanup and No. 5 hitters, to shut down the rally.
Wurm allowed little else the rest of the way. Beginning with the strikeouts of Sparks and Lee Ayers, she retired nine in a row, 11 of the next 12 and 15 of the next 17. She struck out two batters in the second, two in the third, two in the fifth, the side in the sixth and two more in the seventh, popping sister and catcher Jordyn Wurm’s glove throughout the afternoon.
Perhaps more impressive, she did it with a bruised thumb, an injury she sustained in an earlier game against Clear Lake and aggravated against Lower Lake after stealing home in the bottom of the first inning and smacking the thumb on the shin guard of the catcher.
“AJ pulled it together today,” Kelseyville head coach Brittany Rumfelt said. “I’m super proud of her.”
Wurm allowed five batters to reach base during 5 2/3 innings of two-hitter relief. While Jacks reached on an infield error in the second that accounted for Lower Lake’s final run, Sparks had a one-out single in the fifth but didn’t advance past second base, and Madelyn Garner singled leading off the sixth but never advanced past first base as Wurm struck out the next three batters.
Wurm also opened the seventh with a strikeout before things got a bit dicey. Jack and Sparks drew back-to-back walks to put the potential tying runs on base, but Wurm came back to strikeout of Ayers on a 3-2 pitch, and Hailee McRae grounded into a force play to end the game, shortstop Byrne tossing the ball to third baseman Vanessa Reyes, who stepped on the bag to end the game.
“She got us to swing at pitches out of the zone,” Lower Lake head coach Julie Jackson said of Wurm’s 11-strikeout day. “She did a nice job for them.”
Wurm’s shutdown pitching wouldn’t have mattered had the Knights not rallied from a 4-1 deficit. They were being no-hit by losing pitcher Crystal Pepper going to the bottom of the fourth, their only run to that point coming on Wurm’s leadoff walk in the bottom of the first followed by three stolen bases – second, third and home – that briefly tied the game at 1-1.
“We finally got our bats going a little bit,” Rumfelt said. “We left way too many on base early (through walks, hit batsmen and errors), but we got some clutch hits late in the game.”
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, the Knights loaded the bases on back-to-back walks and a hit batsman, which brought Kelseyville catcher Jordyn Wurm to the plate. Desperately in need of a hit, the Knights finally got it as Wurm punched a single into left field to score two runs and cut the lead to 4-3.
Byrne followed with an infield single to reload the bases, but Pepper bore down and got Reyes to hit a soft line drive to shortstop that Sparks gloved and nearly turned into a double play as she stepped on a second just a step behind the runner there. Pepper then worked the count full to Mati Mateer before getting a called third strike.
Neither team threatened again until the bottom of the sixth when Pepper again struggled with her control, walking AJ Wurm and Brooke Poff before hitting Jordyn Wurm to load the bases. The Knights caught a huge break at that point. While Byrne followed a drive into left field that was plenty deep to score the speedy AJ Wurm at third, Wurm failed to tag up. However, the Trojans committed an error fielding the ball as it was rapidly returned to the infield, and Wurm was able to score the tying run as the other runners also advanced.
Reyes’ RBI groundout to second base gave Kelseyville a 5-4 lead, and Mateer’s RBI double to right field made it 6-4 before the inning ended on a bang-bang play at first base as Paelynn Beall nearly beat out a grounder to second base that was initially bobbled.
“We’ve had that happen before,” Rumfelt said of the failure of a player to tag up at third base on a flyball. “We were lucky how the play turned out.”
AJ Wurm was able to navigate the top of the seventh even as raindrops began to fall from mostly cloudy skies that were prevalent most of the game.
Lower Lake took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a Lee-Ayers two-out RBI single. A second potential run was cut down at the plate as Jordyn Wurm applied the tag with runner Heidi Ortega bearing down on her.
After AJ Wurm’s steal of home tied the game in the bottom of the first, the Trojans scored three times in the top of the second, With one out, Byrne, Kelseyville’s starting pitcher, walked three straight batters before Pepper doubled two of them home for a 3-1 lead. That’s when Rumelt made her move to the bullpen, shortstop AJ Wurm and Byrne swapping positions on the field.
“I think both teams played a pretty good game,” Jackson said.
While impressed with AJ Wurm’s pitching effort, Jackson said Wurm caused an equal amount of trouble at the plate where she walked three times and scoring each time.
“She is one person I never want on the bases,” Jackson said.
Pepper struck out eight and walked seven for Lower Lake, which beat Kelseyville 4-0 earlier this season at Lower Lake.
Both teams still have six league games remaining.
“We’re starting to rise up and play some good ball,” Rumfelt said.
Added Jackson of the Trojans, “We’ve just got to stay strong and keep moving forward, forget about whatever we didn’t do today. When you let stuff affect you long term, it eats you up.”
Both teams are back in action Tuesday. Kelseyville hosts league leader St. Helena (8-0) while Lower Lake visits Middletown (1-8).
GAME NOTES: Lake County’s home run leader, Kelseyville junior third baseman Josie Keithly, was ill and missed the game. Reyes took her place at third base and handled all three of her chances cleanly while also driving in what proved to be the winning run.
