The Boston Hunters recorded their first win against a team other than the New York Heights on Sunday night, beating the Los Angeles Queens 7-3 behind a strong start from righty Kate Blunt and a pair of two-run fifth-inning home runs from outfielders Ticara Geldenhuis and Lexi Hastings.
Blunt, making just her second start on the mound and third pitching appearance overall this season, ran into a little trouble early on, allowing a run in the first when the Queens plated a one-out single by captain Ashton Lansdell, making her third straight start in right field. But Blunt settled down quickly after that, allowing just four more baserunners over the next four innings and becoming the first Hunters pitcher to complete five innings in a single game.
Meanwhile, prior to Sunday night, the Queens had relied heavily on just four pitchers this season, with starters Ayami Sato and Michelle Roche and relievers Meggie Meidlinger and Jamie Mackay combining for 54 2/3 of LA’s 61 innings (just shy of 90%) prior to Sunday night. Prior to this game, the only Queen to start a game this season other than Sato and Roche was Suzu Narasaki, who lasted just an inning and a third in that outing and was traded to the Heights on Friday.
With Sato and Meidlinger both inactive Sunday after throwing a combined seven innings on Saturday, Queens manager Eric Young turned to 22-year-old Ayuri Shimano, whom he added to the roster in the wake of the Narasaki trade, and who had started the previous two games at first base and shortstop, respectively, going a combined 3-for-5 with three walks.
Shimano’s first pitching appearance of the season got off to a shaky start, as she walked Boston leadoff hitter Gabrielle Haas on four pitches, balked her to second, then, after a groundout pushed Haas to third, failed to catch a feed from first baseman Adelaide Bryant for an error that allowed Haas to score on a grounder to first by third baseman Denver Bryant. Shimano then walked Hunters cleanup hitter Ticara Geldenhuis, making her first start of the season at designated hitter, on four pitches, and gave up singles to shortstop Raine Padgham and left fielder Lexi Hastings, the former plating Bryant to give the Hunters an early 2-1 lead, and the latter loading the bases with just one out.
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(Note: Hastings’ single was officially ruled a fielder’s choice, but that has to be overturned, as no out was recorded on the play, and no misplay was made by a fielder. Queens shortstop Samaria Benítez threw to second on Hastings’s bouncer to her right because she had no chance to catch the speedy Hastings at first base and, it turned out, no chance to get either of the other runners, either. That’s not a fielder’s choice. That’s a single.)
After retiring just one of the first six batters she faced, however, Shimano wriggled out of that first-inning jam. Though she relied heavily on her curveball all night, she surprised Hunters catcher Hyeonah Kim with a 74 mile per hour fastball to strike her out looking. Queens third baseman Caitlin Eynon then made a nice play on a foul pop by Sabrina Robinson, who was making just her second start of the season at first base, to strand all three runners.
Shimano opened the second with three straight balls, the third of which hit Boston second baseman Suzuka Yamamoto, but when the lineup turned over, she got Haas to hit into a 6-4-3 double play, which looked like a pivotal play until the fifth inning. From the second out of the first inning to the first out of the fifth, Shimano faced just one more batter than the minimum. That one was a leadoff walk to Hastings in the fourth that Shimano stranded with the help of a sacrifice bunt by Kim, striking out Robinson and getting Yamamoto to pop out to third.
Meawhile, the Queens tied things up in the top of the third when designated hitter Jamie Mackay hit her fifth home run of the season, a 327-foot shot to left off Blunt. That 2-2 score held until the bottom of the fifth.
Shimano started the bottom of the fifth by striking out Haas. After a single by right fielder Molly Paddison, Shimano got Bryant to ground out for the second out, but cleanup hitter Geldenhuis was lying in wait.
As Geldenhuis told The IX Sports after the game, “I knew that she was going to … go to her breaking ball. I think she started a lot of our hitters with a breaking ball first pitch, and when I got a fastball first pitch, my mindset changed to knowing that [the curveball] was coming later in the count. So I was trying to sit back and drive the ball.”
That she did. Geldenhuis golfed a low curve over the left-field wall for a two-run home run to break the tie.
Shimano then struck out Padgham on a curve ball away in the dirt for what should have been the third out of the inning, but catcher Maggie Foxx’s throw to first to complete the out skipped over Frank’s glove, allowing Padgham to reach. Hastings then followed with a two-run, opposite-field home run of her own, breaking the game open.
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Hastings is an increasingly fascinating player. A left-handed hitter, outstanding defensive outfielder, and likely the fastest player in the league, Hastings started the season with a softball-style slap-and-go approach, at times running up on the pitch with a flat, slapping swing designed to put the ball in play and get her momentum started toward first base.
More recently, she has adjusted her approach to take more of a grounded baseball swing, and it’s working wonders. In her last two games, Hastings has come to the plate seven times and (counting her first at-bat in this game as a single, per the above) gone 4-for-5 with two walks, two doubles, and a home run. The only out she made in the last two games came when she struck out on a pitch-clock violation on Saturday.
After the game, Hastings told reporters that the transition from hitting in softball to hitting in baseball has been “really tough.” “I’ve been making the transition and have really put in a lot of work this past week to sell out to those adjustments. … seeing the top half of the ball … letting the ball travel. Obviously, I’m coming from seeing the ball closer and [with] more of an up-spin, so really just selling out to my bat path and staying on the ball.”
With her athletic gifts, the 23-year-old Hastings is yet another player who has breakout potential in this league as she adjusts to playing baseball with regularity.
The Queens allowed another run in the sixth following a leadoff walk from reliever Thaima Maximiliana to Robinson, who was ultimately balked home. Young told The IX Sports after the game that both balks in this game came when his pitchers failed to come to a complete stop before delivering a pitch and that that was something he would address with his pitchers in practice.
Maximiliana escaped further trouble in the sixth inning when center fielder Mo’ne Davis made a spectacular, far-ranging running catch on a deep drive by Paddison that caried her into the center field fence. Haas, who was on second at the time, did tag up on the play before heading to third but was called out on appeal for having left the bag too early, gifting Davis with a double play. Davis then led off the top of the seventh against Boston reliever Maïka Dumais with a walk and came around to score to set the final at 7-3.
With that loss, the Queens drop into a second-place tie with the Heights, both teams at an even 5-5, one game behind the 6-4 Firebells, while the Hunters improved to 4-6, one game behind the Queens and Heights.
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The WPBL will resume play on Wednesday with the Queens hosting the Hunters then taking on the Heights on Thursday. The Firebells have just two games scheduled for the coming week and don’t return to action until Friday, when they host Boston. All games will start at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
Notes:
- The Robin Roberts Stadium grounds crew spent a significant amount of time working on the dirt around the pitching rubber before the start of the second inning, which suggests that the fact that both pitchers struggled in the first but settled down thereafter may have had something to do with the condition of the mound. Young told The IX Sports after the game that “a lot of dirt was caking up” in the pitchers’ spikes and they “couldn’t get their balance.”
- Asked about catcher Beth Greenwood, who came out of Saturday’s game after a ball ricochetted into the side of her mask, and who did not appear in this game, Hunters manager Jemile Weeks said, “She’ll be fine. She’s been to the trainers, got done what she needs to get done. We expect her back at practice and [with] the team going forward.”
