RAIDERS AVOID HOWLAND’S UPSET BID

CANFIELD OH- Not only was it a windy day at South Range for the first day of the SR Tournament, but the first game started out with a possible upset alert as South Range on their home turf faced off against the Howland Tigers.  

The first four innings saw a big time fielding matchup and the first run would not happen until the top of the fifth when Jen Sindledecker hit a pop fly as Hannah Ball went home getting the first run of the game for Howland.  The Tigers got their second run again as Sindledecker went home thanks to a line drive through center field by Bailee Beasom.  Now, things were getting interesting as the 8-11 Tigers had a chance to make an early shocker in the tournament by upsetting the 16-3 Raiders.  

South Range would not back down however as they would get three runs in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a steal by Bree Kohler along with runs from Reagan Irons, Gretchen Bartels and Sindledecker.  The game was tied at three until Madison Dado singled on a 1-2 count making it 4 to 3 and now it was crunch time and Howland needed to block out that they blew a 2-0 lead and instead needed to figure out how to get the lead back.  Well, unfortunately that would not happen as Beamson struck out, giving the Raiders a big time comeback victory, improving their record to 17 and three on the season.  

Stachowicz pitched the Raiders to victory as Alexis Spangler took the loss but both pitched a game for the ages.  South Range (17-3) heads to Boardman to face the Spartans tomorrow at 9AM.  

*Contributed by YSN’s Ian O’Brien*