Kentlake High’s fastpitch team was in an unusual position halfway through its game against Kentridge Wednesday night — it was not winning.
Heading into the bottom of the fourth the Chargers had taken a 2-1 lead after Rianna Bidon’s single up the middle drove in Kayla Andrus.
The Falcons tied it in the bottom of the fourth when Lexi Engman drove in Kellie Nielsen on a single up the middle.
Kentlake exploded for five runs in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead for good but it still had to fend off a Kentridge rally in the top of the seventh.
A combination of power hitting, aggressive running and Kentridge errors led to a 7-2 Kentlake lead after five innings.
Erika Smyth smacked the ball to the center field fence. Jessie Richardson walked. On a double steal the throw to third to get Smyth went over the third baseman’s head into left field, allowing Smyth and Richardson to score.
Libby Riehl walked then Brittany Jacobsen doubled to center putting Riehl on third who scored on a Nielsen sacrifice fly. Maddie Brown drove in Jacobsen on a single to left field. Brown then moved up to third base and then scored on a pair of wild pitches.
Ashleigh Mate, leadoff in the top of the seventh for Kentridge, walked. Haley Crusch followed that with a single to left field. Andrus then took first thanks to a walk. Ashley Conradi stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a single, driving in Andrus, with another run scoring when Abby Bellin walked sending home Crusch.
With the bases still loaded Andrus scored when Bidon was hit by a pitch.
Then Kentlake’s defense came through to close out the game.
Nielsen ran from third base to catch an infield pop up and stretched to catch the ball that looked like it was about to drop in.
Hannah Sauget, who came into the game in the fifth, then struck out the final batter to give Kentlake the 7-5 win in the nailbiter. Sauget relieved Alleigha Robinson, who pitched 4 2/3, and struck out four batters.
Kentlake improved to 8-0 in South Puget Sound League North Division play and held onto first place as well as a season sweep of Kentridge, which it beat 15-5 March 23, as the Chargers dropped to 2-6 in league.
On Thursday Kentlake plays Auburn at Game Farm Park and on Friday they take on Mount Rainier.
Elsewhere in SPSL North action, Kentwood had a bye on Wednesday and Tahoma’s scheduled game at Thomas Jefferson was canceled due to umpire availability.
Tahoma travels to Kentwood at 4 p.m. Thursday.
