MIDDLETOWN — After Upper Lake had pushed ahead 5-4 with an unearned run in the top of the eighth inning, the Middletown Mustangs rallied with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Cougars 6-5 in a North Central League I interlock softball game on Thursday in Middletown.
Middletown (11-4) was cruising along with a 4-0 lead behind ace Nicole Scott, but Upper Lake (7-9) pieced together a four-run rally in the top of the sixth that waspart clutch hitting and part Middletown errors.
“You have to give them credit because they did a good job of sitting on Scott”s changeup,” Middletown coach Lisa Rogers said. Sierra Higgins and Caty Falge delivered RBI singles in the inning and Andrea Elliston had a big two-run double to get the Cougars back even.
After Upper Lake finally snapped that 4-4 tie with a run in the top of the eighth, Middletown bounced back to win the game in the bottom half. Erica Harrison”s RBI single scored Kelsey Welton with the tying run and Harrison came home with the winning run when the Cougars misplayed Scott”s two-out grounder for an error.
Scott worked all eight innings and struck out 16 while walking only two. She also went 1-for-4 with a triple, her third triple in two days.
Falge and Elliston both went 2-for-4 for the Cougars.
In other action Thursday:
Baseball
Middletown 15, Upper Lake 3
At Middletown, the Mustangs didn”t waste any time getting the jump on the Upper Lake Cougars, sending 10 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first and scoring six times en route to an easy NCL I interlock win.
Jake Strickler, 1-0, went the distance for Middletown, now 15-4. He allowed three hits and struck out 10.
Grant Young doubled twice and drove in a run for Middletown and Ryan Peterson went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Justin Woodd also went 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Jayce Meri, Joey Ogulin and Joe Barnes had the only hits for Upper Lake (2-14).
