The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

TOUCHET - Despite some opportunities during the sunny late afternoon ball game against Touchet, the Lady Bulldogs lost to the Indians, 8-2, Tuesday night.

"Touchet is always a good team," head coach Terry Robbins said. "We came into the game a little down."

Robbins said his starting pitcher for the evening, McKayla Bickelhaupt, reported sick and her backup, Sam Harting, wasn't mentally ready to take over, putting in a so-so performance that allowed Touchet some hard-line drives and outfield hits.

Several infield and outfi eld errors added to the Lady Dogs' atypical showing this week. Still, there were proud moments during the game, including a fourth- inning double play by Malia Frame and Shelby Smith that retired the Indians with several bases loaded. A Darci Hall secondbase hit brought in Frame during the same inning. In the fifth inning, Harting's deep third-base hit allowed Smith to score Dayton's second point.

At several other points in the game, the Dogs loaded up the bases, but couldn't sustain the hits to make the runs.

"The girls are getting better base hits," Robbins said.

The Lady Bulldogs, who are 5-3 in league and 8-7 overall, have been on a roll recently. The team beat Asotin in a doubleheader on Monday last week, outscoring the Panthers, 10-9, in the first game and 16-6, in the second.

"This was a great come back game for us," assistant coach Desirae Jones said. "It took a lot of heart for them to come from behind after traveling to Asotin and take the game. It gave them a glimpse of what they're capable of."

Harting, Jessica Tate, Smith, Nicole Lambert and Sarah Philips all pounded out hits in game one, while Philips, Smith, Tate joined Malia Frame, Lexus Ward and Taylor Frame in the same category in the second game. The Bulldogs took down Garfield- Palouse, 11-0, and, 20-0. In the first of the doubleheader, games took two hours and left time for only five innings during the second game. In the second game, the Bulldogs scored nine runs in the top of the fifth inning. Harting had 10 strikeouts in game one.

" In game two, Lexus (Ward) threw a lot of strikes and some of the batters really got a hold of them," Jones said. "She settled in after the second inning and moved the ball around better, allowing only two hits in the last three innings. She did not have any walks."

The girls split their doubleheader against DeSales on Thursday, beating the Irish, 3-2, in the first came but losing to them, 13-6, in the second game.

Jones described the first contest as "the best battle of the season."

Harting struck out three batters in a row to retire De- Sales in the top of the tenth. Taylor Frame was the runner on second in the bottom of the tenth. Philips had an infield single and Frame stayed on second. Harting flew out to right field. Smith struck out. With two outs, Lambert hit a "hot grounder" to the third baseman, which the DeSales player couldn't grab and "everyone was safe," Jones said. With two outs and bases loaded, McKayla Bickelhaupts was up. She fouled several times and took the count to full until DeSales pitcher Ashlyn Lyons threw a ball and Bickelhaupt walked, bringing Frame in for the winning run.The Bulldogs stuck with the Irish until the seventh inning in the second game, when DeSales scored five runs and moved ahead, 13-5.

Dayton vs Touchet April 23

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Dayton vs Asotin April 16

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Dayton vs Gar-Pal April 17

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Dayton vs DeSales April 19

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