The New York Heights scored 11 runs against Los Angeles Queens ace Ayami Sato Thursday night as they cruised to a 12-4 win over L.A. Heights Right fielder Natsuki Yonetani and designated hitter Kylee Lahners both homered off Sato in the first inning as New York ran up the score early against the veteran righty. The Heights now hold a 2-1 advantage in the season series, which will resume on Saturday night in Springfield, Ill.
Thursday night’s game was the third between the Heights and the Queens this season. Sato started all three for Los Angeles, and that familiarity appeared to work to New York’s advantage Thursday night. After the Queens pushed a run across against Heights righty Claire O’Sullivan — making her first mound start of the season — in the top of the first, New York swung into action in the bottom of the inning.
Yonetani led off by sending Sato’s third pitch of the game over the 330-foot sign in center field for the leadoff hitter’s first home run of the season. After Sato struck out catcher Denae Benites and surrendered a single to first baseman London Studer, Lahners got her turn, pulling an 0-2 pitch over the fence in left field for her first WPBL round-tripper to put New York up 3-1.
After the Heights erased a pair of baserunners in the top of the second via a double play and a caught stealing — Benites’s league-leading sixth from behind the plate — a pair of Queens misplays set the stage for an even bigger outburst by the Heights in the bottom of that inning.
After Heights second baseman Madison Willan grounded out to open the bottom of the second, Queens shortstop Ayuri Shimano skipped a throw past first baseman Sarah Edwards to allow center fielder Suzu Narasaki, making her first start for the Heights, to reach second. Yonetani then grounded to third, but Edwards came off the bag to get the throw from third baseman Ashton Lansdell, back at the hot corner after four games in right field, and fired back to third to try to get Narasaki advancing to third only to fail to get the out at either corner.
After Yonetani stole second, Sato plunked Benites on a 1-2 pitch to load the bases, and Studer delivered her second clean single into right field in as many innings, this time plating two runs. After Studer stole second, Lahners picked up two more RBI of her own with a well-placed single to left to make it 7-1 Heights.
Heights third baseman Alyssa Zettlemoyer followed with a soft flare to second base that Queens second baseman Samaria Benítez intentionally let fall out of her glove to turn an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. However, base umpire Joelyn Pullano called a sort of ex post facto infield fly rule on the play, calling Zettlemoyer out but ruling Lahners safe at second. Shortstop Emi Saiki then followed with an RBI single to make it 8-1.
Despite Lansdell’s in-game pep talk to her teammates, the game was more or less over at that point. O’Sullivan allowed a run in the third and another in the fourth but otherwise completed four innings without letting the Queens back into the game. The Heights, meanwhile, answered that third-inning run with one of their own, plating a leadoff double by Willan, then drove Sato from the game in the fourth, ultimately scoring three more runs in that frame with a string of singles against Sato and reliever Amira Hondras, who made her season debut on the mound.
Hondras settled down from there and gave L.A. 2 2/3 innings of solid relief, keeping the Heights from adding to their tally in the fifth and sixth, and emerging as a potential bullpen arm for the Queens going forward, per manager Eric Young’s comments to The IX Sports after the game. Not that it much mattered in this game. Nor did the lone run the Queens managed to score off New York relief ace Jaida Lee in the top of the seventh when right fielder Michelle Roche, hunting Lee’s fastball, shot a two-out double the other way to drive home center fielder Mo’ne Davis, who had singled.
Lee wasn’t quite as dominant as she had been in her previous two relief appearances, but she was still impressive, striking out four of the 10 batters she faced across two admittedly inefficient innings while walking no one. She also became, as best I can tell given the limited pitch data provided by the league, the first pitcher in the WPBL to hit 80 miles per hour with her fastball, doing so multiple times across her two innings, per the ESPN scorebug.
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Beyond Lahners, Yonetani — who also had an RBI single in the third — and Studer — (3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored) — the hitting stars of the game were Willan (3-for-4 with a double and a run scored), and Saiki, who went 4-for-4 with a single in every plate appearance, two RBI and a run scored.
Saiki, whose arrival in the league was delayed by visa issues, told The IX Sports she spent three months in her hometown of Kagawa, Japan, practicing in the morning and coaching kids in the afternoons while waiting for her visa to be approved, which happened on Aug. 13, her 25th birthday. She arrived in Springfield on Aug. 15, was traded to the Heights on Aug. 21, and made her season debut on Aug. 22. She has since started the Heights’ last two games at shortstop and has reached base seven times in eight trips over those two games — with five singles, two walks, three RBI and two runs scored.
For her next trick, Saiki will be the Heights’ starting pitcher when these two teams meet again on Saturday night. The Queens will counter with fellow late-arriving, two-way shortstop Ayuri Shimano. Both teams are off tonight while the San Francisco Firebells return to action to host the Boston Hunters.
Injury News
Queens left fielder Isabella Villarreal came out of Thursday’s game in the fourth inning because her legs “tighten[ed] up,” manager Eric Young told the IX Sports. Young said he wasn’t sure if the issue was related to the hamstring strain that kept Villarreal out of action for most of the first half of the season.
Heights manager Rocky Henley told The IX Sports that right-handed pitcher Jacqui Reynolds (shoulder) threw a bullpen on Thursday and reported that her velocity is “up.” Henley said she is planning to use Reynolds in relief of intended starter Rakyung Kim in Sunday’s game against the Firebells. Reynolds, who was forced out of her Aug. 16 start by shoulder tightness, last pitched on Saturday and lasted just four batters, retiring just one.
Henley also said she intends to use Suzu Narasaki and Jaida Lee in relief of Saiki on this Saturday. If that comes to pass, it will mark Lee’s fourth straight game as the last arm out of the bullpen for New York, albeit with five off-days scattered among them.
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Notes
Queens captain Ashton Lansdell and manager Young contradicted one another in the postgame press conference with regard to the significance of Ayami Sato facing the Heights for the third time this season and, from New York’s perspective, for the second game in a row.
Lansdell told reporters, “I think Sato [was] put in a tough position, because this is the third time she started against the Heights. And that’s an advantage to the Heights.”
However, Young told The IX Sports, “I’m a firm believer, if you’ve got good stuff, it doesn’t matter how many times you face a team. It happens in the MLB when they face a team five times, they don’t say that they’re used to what he’s throwing. Well, she has to step up. She’s our ace.”
Actually, it is often noted that repeated looks at a pitcher can benefit an opposing team in Major League Baseball. Still, Young’s point appeared to be that he didn’t want Sato or her teammates to use that as an excuse.
For her part, Lansdell placed some of the blame for the poor outing on the Queens’ defense, saying, “I think most of our work needs to be put in on the defensive side, and I think that’s what we’re going to attack the next few days. The hits are going to come. The pitching is there. I think we just need to sharpen up defensively and we’ll be right where we need to be.”
