Top of the fourth tonight at DeLuca, Canada leads 1-0, has second and third with two out after a strikeout; ace leadoff hitter Melanie Mathews*, who’s already 2-for-2, is up. Manager John Stratton — who hates the intentional walk — calls for the intentional walk. Catcher Germaine Fairchild holds her left arm out. Hard-throwing pitcher Casey Hunter, in a Brakettes jersey for the first time, delivers one away. WAY away. High and away. Over and past Fairchild’s outstretched arm, in fact.
(The configuration of DeLuca Field is a tad unusual: The bottom of the backstop is chain-link, a couple of feet high, which puts the top of that portion even with the walkway at the bottom of the stands. Above that also used to be chain-link, but earlier this season, the chain-link came down; a new mesh screen, like you’d see above a Major League backstop, was installed in its place**. The screen also happens to be pretty tight still.)
So we left Hunter’s wild pitch somewhere above Fairchild’s mitt. As it reaches the backstop, Canada’s Angela Lichty takes off from third base. But the pitch misses the chain-link and hits off the screen, caroming back toward the plate almost as fast as Lichty barrels toward the plate.
And here’s where it gets weird. Third baseman Stephanie Hill was playing in tight, very tight, to begin with, and is now barreling toward the plate as well, ahead of Lichty. Fairchild gets to the ball and flips to the plate, where Hill catches it and slaps down a tag between her legs just as Lichty gets there. Umpire Tony Candido calls Lichty out to end the inning.
Here’s how strange this looked: We convinced ourselves up in the press box that it HAD to be a set play.
Not set, Stratton said, just fortuitous: Knowing the screen could create a carom like that, Hill was playing in tight just in case it happened.
It happened. Just another night at the ballpark***.
*-Whose father, just to make this topical, was a sixth-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in the 1974 amateur draft, and an 11th-round pick of the Oilers in the WHA draft that same year.
**-Accomodates a TV camera above the press box; easier to shoot through the screen than the chain-link.
***-A night that happened to feature seven Brakettes errors. To welcome their Canadian visitors, at least one went five-hole…