May 19, 2000

Tigers can not get over that hump

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

OLD FORT &emdash; It has taken four years of varsity softball for Seneca East to close the gap on Old Fort, but, as history will have it, the Tigers go down as a team that never quite got over that hump.

These two tightly-knit teams have been close since the little league days, with Old Fort sweeping the Tigers all through high school.

Seneca East had one last shot at getting the best of the Stockaders, but not even the three-hit pitching of April Hafner could overcome Old Fort in the district finals.

Erin Rau fired a one-hitter, leading the Stockaders to a 2-0 victory and berth in the Division III regional tournament for the fourth consecutive season. Old Fort will take on Elmwood, 10-0 winners over North Baltimore, in a 4:30 p.m. semifinal at Findlay on Wednesday.

"Seneca East has a really nice ballclub," Old Fort coach Ron Rau said. "We've played each other tough since little league, and I really didn't want to play them (in the tournament). I knew it was going to be a game like this."

'Like this' meant pitching. And lots of it.

Rau (17-2) struck out 11, and the only hit she surrendered came in the sixth, when Seneca East leadoff batter Laurie Kochel singled to right.

Hafner (8-3) was equally impressive. Her three strikeouts weren't as overpowering as Rau's work, but the SE pitcher didn't walk a batter (Rau walked two and hit a batter) and gave up just one hit after the second inning. She was particularly tough on OF's top five hitters, who were a combined 0-for-15.

Her only trouble spot came in the second when Old Fort's Jenny Seigley reached on an error to start the inning.

Seigley moved to third on a one-out single by Cassandra Frankart, and then scored on freshman Breena McCool's sacrifice bunt.

"In a big game like this it's nice to see a freshman come through like that," coach Rau said. "Breena's not really one of our best bunters, but that's something we worked on in practice last night. So, what we worked on worked. And Cassandra Frankart and Abby Kingsborough came up with big hits in that inning as well."

Kinsborough's single to left scored Frankart, giving the Stockaders all the padding they needed.

Erin Rau ran into trouble just once. After Kochel's single in the sixth, Rau hit No. 2 hitter Charissa Thompson, giving the Tigers two runners with no outs.

But Rau fanned Cassandra Holmer, got Holly Chapman to ground out to second baseman Rosy Ortiz and induced Hafner into a pop out to get out of the jam.

"That was definitely our best chance, and it was about our only chance," Seneca East coach Rick Bumb said. "The door was open. We just failed to take advantage of it. (Rau) pitched a real good game; she really did. I don't know what her strikeout total was, but we hit her much better the first time we played.

"It's really a game of inches," he said. "They got a bloop hit to score one of their runs, and their freshman laid down a real nice bunt."

It's been that way for the Tigers &emdash; inches short of the hump.