This rematch was a polar opposite of the first game between these second place teams.
The first game was played at a blistering pace of an hour and fifteen minutes, and this game took more than two hours and fifteen minutes. The first game featured fantastic pitching from both sides, and this game saw 15 hits and nine runs.
In the end, Wilson (8-2) prevailed over Poly (6-3), 9-0, and took sole possession of second place in the Moore League.
“We came out ready to play,” said Wilson coach Tim Rother. “I wish CIF playoffs could just start right now.”
That sentiment from Rother is a far cry from how he felt after the first meeting when he said his Bruins took too long to adjust to Poly starting pitcher Ashley Betance-Kearn. But as Poly coach Ken Munger said after this game, “they brought their hitting shoes today.”
The adjustments Rother wanted to see in the first game came quickly in the first inning as Megan Guzman moved up in the box and waited out a 2-1 count before roping a triple over the center fielders head. Catcher Lacey Rother didn’t give Betance-Kearn time to settle in, and chopped a grounder to the left side to score Guzman.
In the circle for the Bruins, Linzy Rother got going early and cruised with a little help from her sister. Linzy allowed a leadoff single to Priscilla Pino, but Lacey gunned down Pino at second trying to steal, and Linzy didn’t allow a base runner until she was relived in the sixth.
In the top of the second, something happened that no one at Joe Rodgers Field wanted to see. Wilson’s Kasie Cochrane led off the inning with a shot back up the middle, and Betance-Kearn couldn’t get her glove up in time. Cochrane got all of the ball, and the ball got all of Betance-Kearn’s nose.
The Poly ace began bleeding profusely and hit the ground. Both coaching staffs and the Wilson security team ran to the circle to check on the sophomore.
“For a few minutes it had nothing to do with the rivalry,” said Munger. “I have to give credit to the Wilson staff… they had people out there immediately, and had the paramedics here pretty quick.”
Betance-Kearn was taken to Community Hospital of Long Beach. She knew where she was, had no blurred vision and no dental damage, but the nose and cheekbone fracture will keep her out for the rest of the season. All things considered, she got off pretty lucky. “Her nose just looks like a prize fighter now,” said Munger.
After a fifteen-minute delay, the game got back under way with MacKenzie Brewster in the circle and the freshman got two ground outs to end the inning.
“After that, I told the girls they had to dig deep,” said Munger. “I got a little emotional too, but I knew I had to be strong for them… you have to give credit to MacKenzie… she went out there and did her job. After all that, it wasn’t easy.”
It especially wasn’t easy with how the Bruins were hitting the ball, and how Rother was throwing the ball. Rother (5IP, 1H, 0R, 7K) pitched a perfect four after the first inning, and the hits kept coming in the third.
Brandi Enriquez led off with a single, and Guzman followed with an inside the park home run to center to make it 3-0. Guzman led off with a double in the fifth (she was a single away from the cycle before getting pulled in the sixth) and Ashley Hollowood knocked her in with a legged-out single. An error on a Cochrane line drive capped the three-run inning, and a Hollowood’s home run capped the scoring in the top of the seventh. Enriquez finished the day 3-for-4 with two runs scored.