Eric Young Sr.<\/a> handed the ball to two-way player Isabella Villareal, who revealed near the end of the regular season that she was still recovering from the hamstring strain that caused her to miss several weeks during August. Villareal allowed two walks and a single to the first three batters she faced, and that was enough for Young to make the call to bring in closer Meggie Meidlinger to face Heights third baseman Alyssa Zettlemoyer. Here\u2019s how that went:<\/p>\nMeidlinger got Eccles to fly out for the final out of the sixth, and the Queens returned to the dugout with the pitcher\u2019s spot in the order due up fourth in the following half-inning. As one of just a handful of pitcher-only players in the WPBL, Meidlinger does not usually bat, so when she does it\u2019s a special occasion, one that the Los Angeles dugout celebrates by dancing along to her walk-up music.<\/p>\n
If that was the excitement level when Meidlinger picked up a bat, imagine her teammates\u2019 exuberance when she notched her first hit in the WPBL. Actually, no need to imagine.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t all dancing and fist pumps for Meidlinger. After the Queens put up two runs in the sixth and another four in the seventh, their lead was 10-1 when Meidlinger went back out to face the top of the Heights order and seal the win. The closer did finish the job, but not before the Heights roughed her up for two runs on a double, two singles, and an error. Unphased (and perhaps even more fired up than usual), Meidlinger got shortstop Val Perez to ground into a double play. A fly out from pitcher Keira Izumi cut short New York\u2019s attempted comeback.<\/p>\n
Game 2<\/p>\n
Between Games 1 and 2, Heights closer Jaida Lee appeared on the WPBL\u2019s broadcast of Game 2 between the Hunters and the Firebells. During that conversation, Lee conceded that the Heights could have done more to prepare for Game 1. Naturally, she was asked what type of preparation was in the works for Game 2, and she replied that they were watching a ton of video. No mention of data, pitch-tracking or otherwise. There\u2019s no denying the value of film study, but supplementing the practice with data makes it much more efficient and minimizes the likelihood of overlooking patterns and tendencies.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the New York offense did break out for nine runs in Game 2, which was enough to outlast the Queens for a 9-7 victory and force a Game 3. Mackay started for Los Angeles and allowed one run on three hits and a walk over two innings. She pitched infrequently during the regular season, logging just over 10 innings, and her last appearance was a rather disastrous outing against the Heights on September 3, when she allowed 11 runs (seven earned) over 2 1\/3 innings. After a comparatively smooth couple of innings, Ayami Sato entered in relief for just the second time all season. At age 36, Sato\u2019s season has been more up and down than when she was in her prime and winning World Cup titles for Team Japan. She\u2019s been extremely hittable at times this year, but still mixes in plenty of innings where you can see why she\u2019s considered one of the best pitchers the women\u2019s game has ever seen. You can pretty much tell which version of Sato you\u2019re getting on any given day based on the swing-and-miss. On her best days, Sato still gets hitters to look silly whiffing at pitches high and tight or low and away.<\/p>\n
The Heights have seen a lot of Sato this year. Eleven of her 23 innings pitched have come against the Heights, and they\u2019ve had her number, tagging her for 22 runs (13 earned) and racking up 26 hits and two walks, with just seven strikeouts. Game 2 was more of the same. Sato threw three innings, and the Heights got to her for six runs (five earned) on eight hits and one walk with zero strikeouts. Given their track record against Sato, I\u2019m not sure that performance benefitted much from the additional prep.<\/p>\n
Amira Hondras pitched a scoreless sixth, then passed the ball to Meidlinger for her second appearance in as many games. In addition to facing Meidlinger twice in this series, the Heights also saw quite a bit of her during the regular season. O\u2019Sullivan was 1-for-2 with a single and a walk against the Queens closer, then reached on an error against her in Game 1. In Izumi\u2019s lone regular-season plate appearance against Meidlinger, she drove a ball to left that Thaima Maximiliana dropped, allowing Izumi to reach. She also hit a fly ball to center against Meidlinger in Game 1, but that time it was caught for the out.<\/p>\n
Why the fixation on O\u2019Sullivan and Izumi\u2019s histories with Meidlinger? Because with one out in the seventh inning of a tie game, O\u2019Sullivan and Izumi took Meidlinger deep on back-to-back jacks. The pair of long balls gave the Heights the lead for good. Again, Meidlinger is somewhat of a known quantity for the Heights, so maybe that, plus their additional film study and her appearing after throwing two innings in Game 1, helped them get to the league\u2019s only qualified pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA.<\/p>\n
But what\u2019s perhaps stranger about the Heights\u2019 somewhat improbable comeback against a lockdown closer is how they did it. Setting aside Denae Benites and her 11 regular-season home runs (tied for the league lead), the Heights are not a power-hitting team. No one else on the roster had more than two home runs. They finished last in the league in doubles. They are a speed-and-singles offense that scores runs in bunches by clustering hits together. It\u2019s an offensive style disproportionately affected by slumps and easily stymied by an unfamiliar opponent or a pitcher with her best stuff working. And as Game 2 proves, that type of offense can only take you so far unless you can still come through with the occasional timely home run.<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s pitching did look sharper in Game 2, with the exception of O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s last inning of work. But her hitting the wall on the mound did evoke some strategy from the Heights manager. O\u2019Sullivan entered in the fourth, and other than a hit-by-pitch to start the fifth, she looked solid for the first inning and two-thirds, but then things started to unravel. She escaped the fifth still clinging to a two-run lead, but came back out for the sixth and allowed the first four batters to reach. With two runs already in and runners on first and second, O\u2019Sullivan threw a wild pitch to Mackay that ran the count to 2-1, allowed the runners to both move up a bag, and prompted a mound visit from Henley.<\/p>\n
After a brief conversation, Henley signaled for a mid-plate-appearance pitching change. But she didn\u2019t bring in a pitcher from the bullpen. Instead, Eccles jogged in from center field. The knuckleballer dropped a strike in the zone to even the count, then got Mackay to pop a foul back and out of play. Eccles missed well wide with her next pitch, and Mackay ripped her fourth offering foul just outside of third. The eighth pitch of the plate appearance (fifth from Eccles) just missed for ball four. With the bases now loaded, Eccles hit shortstop Caitlin Eynon with her 0-2 pitch to drive in a run. Eccles got the final two outs of the inning and pitched a scoreless seventh to close out the win, which is what matters most, but her performance against Mackay and Eynon did not exactly showcase the strategic merit of the mid-plate-appearance pitching change.<\/p>\n
Game 3<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s contest began with dueling homers. Queens second baseman Samaria Benitez led off with a walk, Ayuri Shimano followed with a single, and Queens captain Ashton Lansdell hit one high and deep beyond the center field wall. Then, in the bottom half of the inning, Natsuki Yonetani hit a fly ball that was scored a triple (the league\u2019s first!) even though it ricocheted off the glove of Amira Hondras as she attempted to make the play in right. Then Benites, the Heights captain, followed the trend set by the opposing captain by launching a home run of her own.<\/p>\n
Here we\u2019re going to jump ahead to the third, partly because there\u2019s a lot to get to in this game, but also because the broadcast was having nonstop technical difficulties due to a power issue at the stadium, which caused the feed to cut out every few minutes \u2014\u00a0so skipping around feels in harmony with the vibe of this game. <\/p>\n
Eynon led off the inning with a solo homer, capping a strong series at the plate in which she went 5-for-9 with two walks. A walk from Hondras and a double from Villareal put runners on second and third. First baseman Sarah Edwards seemed to line out to Heights first baseman Kylee Lahners, who fielded the ball and quickly threw to second to double off Villareal. But it turned out Lahners was doing some acting. Even Henley admitted postgame that the ball hit the ground, meaning not only was Edwards safe, but there was no force at second. Unfortunately, Villareal fell for the bit and, thinking she was out, began to leave the field. By the time she realized what was happening, the Heights were able to recover and tag her out. But instead of two outs and a runner at third, the Queens had runners on the corners with one out. Davis hit an RBI single and Benitez took a pitch to the back of her batting helmet to load the bases. Shimano stepped to the plate and watched two pitches before sending the third pitch she saw to the opposite field for a grand slam. The inning concluded without further scoring, but the six-run outburst wound up being fairly representative of how the rest of the game would go.<\/p>\n
Remember how Benitez got beaned in the head? I hope you do; we talked about it in the last paragraph. Anyway, her day was about to get even more painful. With two outs and shortstop Emi Saiki at the plate, the broadcast feed cut out. When it returned a minute or two later, Saiki was on first, Madison Willan had advanced to third, and Benitez was down in shallow right field clutching her knee. It seemed to be a non-contact injury as Benitez attempted to move out of the way so Edwards could make a play on the ball. She was eventually taken off the field on a golf cart without any more information provided on the broadcast.<\/p>\n
We now move ahead to the bottom of the fifth. After tacking on two additional runs in the top half of the inning, the Queens led 11-6. That\u2019s a pretty comfortable lead with just an inning and a half left to play, right? Wrong. Shimano, the hero of the Queens half of the third, took over on the mound in the bottom of the fourth after Roche, who started the game on short rest, gave up a one-out RBI double to O\u2019Sullivan. Shimano got out of the inning without allowing any more runs to score, but that trend would not continue. The Heights came all the way back to tie the game at 11, and all it took was a five-run fifth. Willan led off with a walk, followed by a Saiki single. Then Yonetani hit into a double play. Oh yeah, all of the runs scored after there were already two outs. The Queens intentionally walked Benites to put runners on the corners, then left fielder London Studer hit a bases-clearing double. Shimano hit O\u2019Sullivan with a pitch before Lahners cleared the bases even more thoroughly than Studer because that\u2019s how home runs work. The Lahners homer completed the comeback and Perez grounded out to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Sato, who was fresh off getting roughed up for five runs in Game 2, entered the game in the sixth to pitch in relief of Shimano. Surely this also ended in disaster, right? Well, in her first plate appearance of the evening, Sato got a whiff, a foul tip, and weak grounder foul before making a tricky basket catch on a popup with the baserunner bearing down. <\/p>\n
Signs pointed to Big Game Sato showing out in Game 3. She finished the inning by striking out Willan and getting a groundball out from Saiki.<\/p>\n
With Eccles on to pitch the top of the seventh, the Queens hit peak patience at the plate with the following sequence: Right fielder Maggie Foxx was hit by a pitch, Shimano singled to right, Lansdell took a four-pitch walk, Mackay was hit by a pitch (Foxx scored), Sato hit a sacrifice fly that scored Shimano (see below for the reception Sato got upon returning to the dugout), Hondras flied out to center, left fielder Diana Ibarra took a four-pitch walk, Edwards worked a five-pitch walk (Lansdell scored), Davis worked a seven-pitch walk (Mackay scored), and Foxx flied out to right.<\/p>\n
Now, all of those walks and hit-by-pitches probably make it seem like Eccles was so wild that the Queens shouldn\u2019t have even been tempted to swing, but several of the pitches were close enough to make both Eccles and Benites show visible frustration at not getting the call. (They had an argument for one or two, but there were also a couple close calls that went their way, so it would be disingenuous to imply Eccles was being squeezed). By the end of the frame, the Queens were back up 15-11, and Sato was back on the mound to close it out. She got a fly out from Yonetani, and Benites to whiffed at a pitch in on her hands for strike three. Sato then allowed a double down the right field line to Studer, but she battled back to get O\u2019Sullivan to pop out to Edwards in foul territory and send the Queens to the championship.<\/p>\n
Scenes From the Postgame Celebration<\/p>\n
As celebrations began for the Queens, Benitez was brought back onto the field in a wheelchair with her knee wrapped to be with her team. When the Queens took their group photo, they placed the crown they use for home run celebrations on her head. <\/p>\n
Sato was named player of the game, and as is customary in the U.S., she received a Gatorade bath from her teammates. In the postgame press conference, she told reporters it was her first. Despite being a multi-time MVP of the Women\u2019s World Cup for Team Japan, the Gatorade bath has not transcended to international notoriety. In the moments before it happened, it was clear Sato has no idea what was coming, but shout out to the kind person who got Sato\u2019s interpreter out of there just before splash down.<\/p>\n
In youth sports, it\u2019s common to see a postgame handshake line between opponents, but the practice usually falls by the wayside once athletes reach the pros. In the WPBL, the handshake line was replaced with a hug line. The Queens crossed the field to the Heights dugout to offer what comfort they could to a New York team feeling the emotions of a fresh loss. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody wants to win, and I\u2019ve been on the other side of that loss before [and] it hurts.\u201d Lansdell told reporters during the postgame press conference. \u201cThey played their hearts out [\u2026] and we had to go show them respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the emotions didn\u2019t stop flowing once the players left the field. When it was Sato\u2019s turn to speak during the press conference, she said through her interpreter, \u201cToday, when I found out that I was going to pitch, I was honestly scared,\u201d but she drew strength from the support she got from her coaches and teammates. As she put it during her on-field interview, \u201cWhen my moment came and I stepped onto the mound, I saw my teammates\u2019 faces, and I felt like as long as I have all of them behind me, I could give everything I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Sato spoke of being scared, Lansdell looked over and put a hand on her shoulder to reaffirm that support. But there was also a note of surprise on Lansdell\u2019s face. It can be difficult to believe that someone like Sato, a legend of women\u2019s baseball, could experience the type of fear that would make her want to run from something she\u2019s worked toward her whole life. It\u2019s a useful reminder that even the greats need a pat on the back sometimes.<\/p>\n
The next test for the Queens will pit them against the Firebells in the Championship Series, beginning Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. ET. Most are likely giving an edge to the Firebells, but the Queens believe they can give the Firebells a fight. As Lansdell told reporters, \u201cI think we became a better team in these last three games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yesterday\u2019s Queens are not today\u2019s Queens. Today\u2019s Queens are even stronger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect To the extreme dismay of schoolchildren everywhere, the semifinal series between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-348918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n