Overcoming a bad inning has been a problem for Grand Forks Red River this softball season.
Not so on Tuesday, however.
The Roughriders saw Grand Forks Central pull even at 4-4 with a three-run sixth inning. But the Roughriders managed to claim a 6-4 high school fastpitch victory with two runs in the eighth inning. In the second game, which doesn't count in East Region standings, Red River downed Central 14-4.
"One bad inning-in a close inning, with an error we make or a big hit we give up-seems to change momentum against us in a lot of games,'' Red River coach Hannah-Rose Rodriguez said. "But we were able to keep it together today.
"Usually I can see a little bit of a letdown when it happens. But not today. I couldn't tell you why.''
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Eighth-grader Jada Steen started the eighth-inning rally when the eighth-grader pulled a double down the left-field line. She advanced home on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Caitlyn Seng added an insurance run with a walk and, after advancing to third, scoring on a Hallie Roed sacrifice fly.
''Jada's one of our youngest starters,'' Rodriguez said. "She's been pretty consistent. To get that hit, and to get into scoring position on it, that was huge.''
Red River had scored single runs in the first two innings and two in the third to build its 4-1 lead. But Central pulled even in the sixth, with Kaitlynn Hajicek hitting a two-run triple down the right-field line and Madi Herbeck singling home Hajicek with the tying run.
But the Knights left the go-ahead runner on base in each of the last three innings.
"Up to (the sixth inning), we hadn't been hitting that well,'' Central coach Steve Olson said. "But we felt pretty good about how we were hitting after the sixth.
"We've been in games like this all year. We never seem to find a way to get them to go our way. You'd think it's going to happen for you at some point. It gets frustrating.''
