Portland St. Patrick vs. Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart – – MHSAA Regional Softball Semifinal – – The Bleacher Denizen – – June 11, 2022 – – by Chuck Krafft
It’s now time for the second semifinal of the day between the Shamrocks of Portland St. Patrick and the Irish of Sacred Heart.
Your Aging Bleacher Denizen missed the first game between Alcona and Breckenridge because of sleep issues, but was able to get to Carson City in plenty of time for this game. Breckenridge beat Alcona 11-1 to earn a birth in the final later this afternoon.
As there are two Catholic schools, playing, I guess we can listen to a couple religious tunes from my “Chuck Krafft” You Tube Channel as we wait for the teams to warm up!
Just a Closer Walk with Thee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0IFWZLHHuc
Amazing Grace (We put this on You Tube before we learned how to do videos. I’m singing and playing with a bit of help from Drummer Donny Brown and Harmonica Player Ray Borgman.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWyRpM7PMJY
After a coin flip, it was determined that St. Patrick would bat first and Sacred Heart would be the home team. Here are the starting lineups.
ST. PATRICK:
Rylee Scheurer p
Carly Scheurer cf
Lydia Meredith ss
Mara Schrauben 3b
Addie Scheurer c
Natalee Teachworth 1b
Emma Honsowitz 2b
Bella Meyers dp
Laynie Meredith rf
Tori Sandborn will play left field, but not bat.
SACRED HEART:
Ellery Garver 1b
Kelsey McDonald 2b
Laura Goenner cf
Anna Terwilliger ss
Nyah Carson dp
Kallie Smith 3b
Natalie Jones p
Emma Yonker lf
Eliza Pieratt c
Alexys Zeien will play right field, but will not bat.
It is now time to review the events of this game through the cloudy lenses of an Aging Bleacher Denizen who never made the team in school. His baseball and softball games were severely limited when the Powers the Be refused to allow him to use a catapult to get his throws to the infield. (Maybe a bazooka would have been allowed. Perhaps, I should have been a bit more persistent.)
Irish Pitcher Natalie Jones struck out the Shamrock leadoff batter in the top of the first inning. Carly Scheurer walked and stole second. She advanced to third base on a wild pitch. Natalie Jones struck out the next batter. The Shamrocks made their third out on a grounder to the shortstop.
Shamrock Pitcher Rylee Scheurer retired the Irish leadoff batter on a popup to first base. Kelsey McDonald was safe on an error. Rylee Scheurer struck out the next batter. St. Patrick Catcher Addie Scheurer fired the ball to second base to catch the baserunner stealing to retire the side.
Irish Pitcher Natalie Jones retired the first two Shamrock batters in the second inning on a fly to right field and a fly to center field. Emma Honsowitz walked and stole second base. She went to third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch. Bella Meyers walked. Natalie Jones struck out the next batter to end the inning.
St. Patrick scored on run in the top of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead.
Anna Terwilliger belted a home run over the left-center field fence to lead off the bottom of the second inning for Sacred Heart. The next hitter was out on a foul popup to first base. Kallie Smith singled to left field and took second base on a groundout by Natalie Jones. Rylee Scheurer retired the next batter on a grounder to shortstop to end the inning.
Sacred Heart scored one run in the bottom of the second inning to tie the game at 1-1.
Natalie Jones retired the three Shamrock hitters in the third inning on a popped up bunt to the pitcher, a fly to third base and a strikeout.
Rylee Scheurer struck out the Irish leadoff hitter in the bottom of the third inning. Ellery Garver singled to left field and went to second base when Kelsey McDonald dropped a sacrifice bunt and was safe at first on an error. Riley Scheurer retired the next two Irish hitters on a foul popup to the catcher and a strikeout.
The Shamrock leadoff hitter in the fourth inning was out on a popup to second base. Addie Scheurer walked and stole second base. Natalie Teachworth grounded a single past second base to drive in Addie Scheurer. Emma Honsowitz was safe at first and the runner out at second on a fielder’s choice grounder to the Irish shortstop. Irish Catcher Eliza Pieratt fired a strike to second base to catch the runner stealing.
That was the third out of the inning. St. Patrick scored one run in the top of the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead.
Rylee Scheurer retired the three Sacred Heart fourth inning batters on a liner to left field and two strikeouts.
Natalie Jones retired the three St. Patrick batters in the top of the fifth inning on a strikeout, a fly to second base and a strikeout.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the first two Irish hitters were out on a fly to second base and a fly to the shortstop. Ellery Garver was hit by a pitch. Rylee Scheurer got the third out on a bouncer to the pitcher.
With five full innings in the books, St. Patrick held a 2-1 lead.
Natalie Jones retired the Shamrock sixth inning leadoff batter on a popup to the shortstop. Lydia Meredith doubled off the third baseman’s glove. The next two St. Patrick batters were out on a fly to second base and a grounder to third base to end the inning.
Laura Goenner led off the bottom of the sixth inning for Sacred Heart with a walk. Anna Terwilliger pounded a double to the left field fence to drive in Laura Goenner to tie the game. Nyah Carson belted a two run homer over the left field fence; she and Anna Terwilliger scored.
Carly Scheurer came in to pitch for St. Patrick. Rylee Scheurer moved to center field.
Kallie Smith was hit by a pitch and took second base on a sacrifice bunt by Natalie Jones. Carly Scheurer retired the next two hitters on a fly to left field and a strikeout to end the inning.
Sacred Heart scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 4-2 lead.
In the top of the seventh inning, Natalie Jones struck out the first two Shamrock hitters and retired the third hitter on a liner to the pitcher to end the game.
Sacred Heart won the game 4-2 and will play Breckenridge in this afternoon’s regional final.
Lydia Meredith had a double for St. Patrick. Natalee Teachworth had a single and one RBI. Emma Honsowitz had a single. Rylee Scheurer pitched five innings and struck out five batters.
Anna Terwilliger had a home run, a double and two RBI for Sacred Heart. Nyah Carson had a home run and two RBI. Ellery Garver and Kallie Smith each had a single.
Natalie Jones pitched the complete game for Sacred Heart. She gave up only two runs and three hits as she struck out seven batters.
This game led to an incredibly exciting Regional Final game between Sacred Heart and Breckenridge! You can read about it here!!