In their first meeting since Opening Day, when the Los Angeles Queens scored six runs the final two innings to come back and steal the first win in WPBL history away from the New York Heights, the Heights turned the tables on the Queens with an extra-inning comeback win in the nightcap of Saturday’s WPBL doubleheader in Springfield, Ill.
After New York came back to tie things up at 4-4 in the fifth, the game was decided by the teams’ respective relief aces. The Heights became the first team to put up a crooked number against LA relief ace Meggie Meidlinger, while Heights flamethrower Jaida Lee dominated out of the bullpen for the second straight game.
Given that Saturday’s afternoon tilt between the Firebells and Hunters saw 10 runs score in the first two innings, this game felt like a pitcher’s duel early, with Queens ace Ayami Sato and Heights righty Rakyung Kim exchanging zeros until the Queens broke through with two outs in the bottom of the third. That happened when LA captain Ashton Lansdell followed a hit-by-pitch and a double by blasting a curveball on the inside of the plate over the wall in dead center, just below the pitch clock, for a three-run home run.
Sato followed that with a 1-2-3 fourth, and the Queens added one more run in the bottom of the fourth when Ayuri Shimano, making her first start at shortstop, led off with a single, and designated hitter Sarah Edwards drove her home three batters later with a single of her own.
Things took a turn in the top of the fifth, however. It all started when Queens center fielder Brittany Apgar dropped an easy fly ball off the bat of Heights third baseman Alyssa Zettlemoyer. Heights manager Rocky Hunter sent Keira Izumi in to run for Zettlemoyer, and Izumi immediately stole second, then moved to third on a groundout by second baseman Elodie Ciamarro.
After a mound visit by Queens manager Eric Young, Emi Saiki, who was part of the trade between the two teams on Friday and was making her WPBL debut as the Heights’ shortstop in this game, singled Izumi home for the Heights first run and Saiki’s first hit of the season. Center fielder Claire Eccles then bunted Saiki to second to put her in scoring position for the top of the order. Giving up the second out of the inning was a questionable choice, but Heights stars Natsuki Yonetani and Denae Benites delivered, driving Sato from the game with a pair of RBI hits, a double and single, respectively, the former one-hopping the right-field wall, to bring New York within one.
Maggie Foxx, making her first pitching appearance since the last time these two teams met on Opening Day, came on in relief, and Benites greeted her by stealing second. Heights first baseman Claire O’Sullivan followed with an RBI single to tie the game at 4-4. Foxx subsequently loaded the bases with a pair of walks — bringing Izumi to the plate as the 10th New York batter of the frame, the same inning in which Izumi pinch ran — before finally ending the Heights’ rally.
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No sooner had the Heights tied things up, however, than Ashton Lansdell untied them. Again starting in right field in order to let Caitlin Eynon start at third base, Lansdell — whose bobblehead was distributed to fans at Robin Roberts Stadium Saturday night — again followed an Eynon double with a home run, this one to the left-field gap, also on a curveball. That round-tripper was Lansdell’s third in the span of two games and moved her past Firebells catcher Alexia Jorge into fourth place in the league’s home run race, right behind teammate Jaimie Mackay.
Lansdell’s fifth inning homer came off Heights righty Jacqui Reynolds, who returned to the mound Saturday night after experiencing shoulder tightness in her last appearance on Aug. 16. Reynolds lasted just four batters and retired just one. After the game, Heights manager Rocky Henley said Reynolds “did her best. She wasn’t feeling quite herself yet.”
Reynolds’s discomfort forced Henley to go to newfound closer Jaida Lee earlier than she likely planned. But if Henley had any concerns about extending Lee, the big Canadian quieted them. Lee set down the first eight batters she faced, striking out half of them.
Young also turned to his closer early for the Queens, bringing Meidlinger on in the top of the sixth inning, but with very different results. Pitching on back-to-back days for the first time this season, Meidlinger was on point in the sixth, striking out two and allowing just one baserunner on a walk to Saiki (who went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks in her debut), even though that was just the second walk Meidlinger had issued on the season. It wasn’t until Meidlinger issued another free pass in the seventh, a four-pitch walk to O’Sullivan, that it was evident that the Queens closer wasn’t in top form.
That second walk came after Benites led off the seventh with a long single. The hit should have been a double, but, thinking she had hit her ninth home run, Benites jogged to first and had to hold there. She then stole second to make up for the mistake. After the walk to O’Sullivan, Meidlinger balked the runners up to second and third, left fielder London Studer singled home Benites, and O’Sullivan scored on a sacrifice fly by designated hitter Kylee Lahners, tying the game at 6-6 and handing Meidlinger her first blown save. An error and a bunt single by Ciamarro put the go-ahead runs on, but Meidlinger held the line there by striking out Saiki and getting Eccles to ground out.
That brought Eynon and Lansdell back up in the bottom of the seventh, but Lee struck out Eynon on a 77 mile per hour fastball away, then struck out Lansdell looking at a curveball away. Lee told reporters after the game that she stuck to her fastball and curveball in this game, let Benites call the pitches, and focused on hitting her spots, which she has done far more effectively in her last two outings. She also talked about the heightened adrenaline of pitching in relief, which was evident in the 20-year-old’s almost giddy demeanor on the mound.
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With Lee forcing the game into extra innings, Young stuck with Meidlinger in the eighth. With Eccles on second as the automatic runner, Henley played for one but got two. After Yonetani bunted Eccles to third, Young ordered an intentional walk to Benites, admitting after the game that he knew the Heights slugger would immediately steal second, which she did. Young told reporters, “I just didn’t want her to beat us.”
O’Sullivan broke the tie by bringing Eccles home on a seeing-eye bouncer between third and shortstop, and Studer scored Benites on a groundout. That gave Lee a two-run lead to protect in the bottom of the eighth, and, in a bit of irony, the run that Benites scored proved to be the one that beat the Queens.
With Mackay on second as the automatic runner, Shimano became the only hitter to reach base against Lee in the game, singling to push Mackay to third. First baseman Adelaide Frank then hit a would-be single up the middle, but Lee, one of the Heights tallest players, leaped to get a glove on it, and Saiti charged in to retire Frank at first. That brought Mackay home to bring the Queens within one, but Lee shut things down from there, striking out left fielder Thaima Maximiliana and the DH Edwards, the former looking at a beauty of a curveball, and the latter on a 79 mph heater, Lee’s fastest pitch of the night, securing the Heights’ 7-6 win.
On the night, Lee struck out six of the 11 batters she faced to increase her league-leading total to 19 (in 14 2/3 innings). In a league in which the average strikeout rate is 12.5 percent, Lee’s is 26.8 percent. In this game, she struck out two batters in each of her full three innings of work. In her last two outings combined, Lee has struck out nine in 5 2/3 innings while allowing just one baserunner, on Shimano’s single in this game.
Lee and the Heights will now have four days off before they face the Queens again on Thursday. Tonight, the Queens take on the Boston Hunters at 7:30 p.m ET, with Meidlinger almost certainly unavailable after throwing 60 pitches Saturday night without any rest.
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Notes
This game echoed Opening Day in a number of ways. The teams were the same. Both used the same three pitchers, in the same order, in both games. Both games were come-from-behind, last-at-bat wins by the visiting team in a league that has been characterized by blowouts thus far. They are also the only two WPBL games thus far in which Queens catcher Maggie Foxx has pitched, and the only two WPBL games in which Queens infielder Isabella Villarreal has played.
Villarreal was nursing a leg injury to start the season but was able to pinch hit on Opening Day, delivering a game-winning, two-RBI double off Lee in the top of the seventh. Villarreal hadn’t played since, but she was finally healthy enough to play the field for this game, starting at second base and going 0-for-2 with a hit-by-pitch and a run scored. However, when Queens manager Eric Young took starter Ayami Sato out of the game in the fifth, he also replaced Villareal at second with Amira Hondras and Brittany Apgar in center with Diana Ibarra to shore up his defense.
Excellent coverage.