One of the toughest ways to lose a softball game is rallying in the final inning and coming up one run short of a comeback; another is losing via a walkoff grand slam. The Park University Gilbert softball team suffered both of those fates in Friday's doubleheader with Saint Katherine and lost by scores of 8-7 and 13-10.

 

In the early going of game one, it felt as if the Buccaneers' bats had to knock off the rust of seeing zero game action for over one month. The Firebirds put up four runs in the first inning, while the Firebirds' Catherine Dages started the game with four no-hit innings.

 

Dages was mostly stellar throughout the four innings that she pitched, but the Buccaneers capitalized on a slew of Firebirds' mishaps to get on the board. Amber Saiz reached based on a walk to lead off the fourth inning; she then advanced to second base on Nadia Gutierrez's bunt followed by a wild throw that allowed her to get to third base. Saiz made it home on a sacrifice fly to right field by Destinee Alvarez; Saiz finished the game one-for-three with crossed home plate twice and a walk.

 

Gutierrez took advantage of reaching base on a wild throw; the freshman speedster stole second base and advanced to third on a wild throw before making it home on a misplayed grounder by the Dages.

 

The Firebirds' starter was removed from the game after the fourth inning and the Buccaneers took advantage of the new pitcher. Tayler Gallegos scored off of a Courtney Beckwith single in the fifth before the Buccaneers attempted a rally in the seventh inning.

 

Michele Dinicola led off the near-comeback with a solo home run over the left field fence on a 1-2 count. Beckwith doubled down the right field line to drive in Beckwith once again before the latter and Saiz came home via Gutierrez's and Alvarez's singles, but the Bucs' four seventh inning runs were not enough to overcome the four runs the Firebirds scored in the fifth and sixth innings.

 

The Buccaneers carried over that late-game momentum into the second game of the doubleheader with a five-run first inning. Gutierrez led off the game with a walk and came home via Saiz's triple to center; Saiz, Alvarez, Gallegos and Raylissa Garcia all scored before the Firebirds managed three outs.

 

Dinicola followed it up with her second and third home runs of the game. The first was a solo shot over the first field fence and the second was good for three runs and gave the Buccaneers an 9-1 lead in the top of the fifth. Dinicola finished the game two-for-three with three runs, four RBIs and one walk. The second homer in game two marked her fifth on the season and broke her own school record for home runs in a season.

 

With a nine-run lead and Gabby Vallee dealing a one-hitter through four innings, it looked like the Buccaneers were going to force a run rule finish, but the home run giveth and the home run taketh away. The Firebirds hit a whopping four home runs off of Vallee and Kylee Saunders in the final three innings en route to a 12-run comeback.

 

The Buccaneers play another doubleheader against Saint Katherine tomorrow starting at 10 a.m