STANWOOD — Power pitching, solid defense and timely hitting have made the Stanwood softball team — the Wesco North’s Big Red Machine — unbeatable through the first half of the regular season.
That didn’t change on Tuesday afternoon, as Brittany Jeans and the Spartans came out on top in a classic pitchers’ duel, beating Christina Rayner and the Arlington Eagles 2-1 at Stanwood High School’s Mike Chandler Field.
Jeans and Rayner each recorded 11 strikeouts in the matchup of the top two teams in the Wesco North, with Jeans giving up four hits and Rayner — who had a perfect game going through 42/3 innings — just two.
“This was a big one,” Spartans coach Cherlyn Schander said. “They’re in second place right behind us, and their only other league loss is to us, so this was a big one to have.”
Despite giving up two hits and a run before getting an out in the second inning, Jeans never wavered, striking out seven of the next 11 batters she faced and setting the Eagles down in order in the fifth and sixth innings.
“She’s amazing,” Spartans junior catcher Sam Bingham said of Jeans. “She was really on today, especially her rise ball. … She never gave up — she never gives up or lets it get her down. She stays focused.”
After going three up/three down for the first three innings, it looked like more of the same for the Spartans in the bottom of the fourth as Rayner and the Eagles (7-2 league, 10-3 overall) recorded two outs in six pitches.
But then Spartans sophomore second baseman Tori Kriegel, who struck out on three pitches in the first inning, lined a 0-2 pitch into left field for a single to break up Rayner’s perfect game and no-hitter.
“You go in there thinking ‘Oh, don’t swing at the rise ball,’ then you get it and you swing,” Kriegel said of facing Rayner. “It felt awesome to get struck out, then come back with a base hit.”
The next batter, Bingham, worked the count full before getting the only walk the Eagles’ ace would issue. Senior first baseman Corinne Stillman followed with a hard single up the middle. Stillman’s hit plated Kriegel and Bingham came home on a throwing error on the same play, putting Stanwood ahead 2-1.
“They’re not 13-0 for nothing,” Eagles head coach Daniel Eng said of the Spartans. “They’re a great team, well-coached and they play great, basic ball. And they hit the ball right when they need to.”
If the Eagles and Spartans (10-0, 13-0) meet again in the District 1 playoffs — Eng’s prediction after the game — Arlington may want to consider pitching around Stillman.
In the teams’ first meeting of the regular season, a 2-0 Stanwood victory on March 26, Stillman sealed the win with a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning.
Rayner struck out 14 in that first game, and on Tuesday she continued to dominate the Stanwood lineup, racking up seven strikeouts in the first three innings.
Junior Amanda Lyon and senior Lisa Allen accounted for all of Arlington’s hits. Lyon hit a lead-off double in the second inning, then scored on Allen’s follow-up single. Each added another single later in the game.
“Two good pitchers, two good teams,” said Eng after the game. “You can’t ask for more.”
At Stanwood H.S.
Arlington0100000—141
Stanwood000200x—221
Rayner and Herrington. Jeans and Bingham. WP—Jeans (9-0). LP—Rayner (9-3). 2B—Lyon (A). Records—Arlington 7-2 league, 10-3 overall. Stanwood 10-0, 13-0.
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