The Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) Softball World Series has been a challenging one for Big Island RBI, as they remain winless after day two of divisional play in Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota.
The representatives of the Boys and Girls Club of the Big Island dropped another pair of games at Neiman Field Wednesday, falling to Harrisburg (PA) RBI 9-0 in a game that ended after five innings because of the tournament’s mercy rule, and Cleveland (OH) RBI 6-2.
Their opening game against Harrisburg was a rematch of Tuesday’s second game, a contest that saw Big Island RBI fail to get a hit in a 6-0 loss. Their bats stayed silent in the rematch, as they managed only four hits against Harrisburg pitcher Katharine Moosic. Moosic struck out only one batter and walked another, but stayed efficient throughout in her team’s victory.
Harrisburg’s bats helped Moosic to cruise early, thanks to a four run first inning against Big Island starter Jordyn Waracka. With one out in the top of the first, Warakcka allowed a two-run double to Jenna Kreiser, followed by a ground-ball RBI single to Rubie Teffeteller. The next batter, Moosic, reached base on an error by third baseman Chelsea Requelman, one of three that she committed, scoring Kreiser to give Harrisburg a 4-0 lead after a half inning of play.
After scoring a run in the third, Harrisburg put up another four spot in the fourth inning. With two outs in the frame and the bases loaded, Taylor Weisman tripled to deep right field, clearing the bases and putting her team up by eight. Kreiser followed with an RBI single to give Harrisburg a 9-0 advantage.
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Waracka pitched four tough-luck innings, allowing all nine runs, although only one of them was earned, on ten hits. She struck out a pair of batters and walked two more. Chelsea Camello pitched the fifth and final inning.
In game two, the West Region champions trailed 1-0 to Cleveland after the first inning, but tied the game up in the second when Camello singled home Requelman. They took the lead in the third inning when Ciana Matsuoka scored on a ground-ball out from Camille Kiyota.
The lead didn’t last long, however. In the bottom of the third, a one-out single from Olivia Wulfhoop against Waracka tied the game at two. Later in the inning, Erin Wolansky singled through the middle of the diamond, bringing the go-ahead run in to give Cleveland a 3-2 advantage.
Cleveland added to their lead in the very next inning by giving themselves three runs of insurance. Taylor Turner scored on an error that extended the Cleveland lead to two runs, and two batters later, Kaitlyn Libb lined a run-scoring single to left field to push Cleveland to a 5-2 lead. Wulfhoop later scored on an error that pushed the lead to four runs, an advantage that would hold for the rest of the game.
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The Big Island squad committed four more errors in the second game, spread out amongst four different players. Those errors made Waracka’s pitching line look a little better. In the six innings she pitched, she allowed two earned runs, six overall, on ten hits with six strikeouts and a walk.
Stacie Doi and Camello both paired hits for Big Island RBI. At 0-4 for the tournament, they have two more divisional games to play on Thursday. They have a rematch with Cleveland RBI at 9:00 a.m. Central time (4:00 a.m. Hawaii time), followed by their second meeting with Hoboken RBI at 11:15 a.m. CT (6:15 a.m. HT).
Regardless of their divisional round record, they will play in the interleague playoffs on Saturday. All teams are seeded by their divisional record, and will face a team from the opposite division with an opposite seeding.
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