Simley Girls Lose Softball Heartbreaker

The Simley High School softball team did everything right – for sixth and a half innings.

Unfortunately for the visiting Spartans, the last half inning made all the difference as host Richfield rallied from a 5-1 deficit to score five runs in the seventh and claim a controversial 6-5 win in a Classic Suburban Conference softball tilt Wednesday.

The Spartans made a number of improvements to their play since the team's disappointing, 7-1 loss to Mahtomedi on Monday, and were able to control the entire game until it all fell apart at the end.

Simley led 5-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh and faced the bottom third of the Richfield batting order. But the Spartans had trouble making outs in clutch time.

The Simley pitcher struck out lead-off batter Hannah Davis. But then gave up a single, a walk and another single to load the bases. Danielle Pues of Richfield reached on a run-scoring infield hit that made it a 5-2 game and Rachel Hilzinger followed with a two-run double to center that cut Simley’s lead to 5-4.

The next batter walked to load the bases again. Richfield’s Sophie Pulice then hit one through the Simley defense, scoring Danielle Pues from third. Richfield’s Kalie Johnson followed Pues home from second and came home only to be tagged out at the plate by Simley catcher Rachel Packer in a close play. But the umpire ruled that Johnson had been interfered with while rounding third base and awarded Richfield the game-winning run.

“The (Simley) third baseman was standing on the base and when Kalie came running from second they kind of got tangled up, so they called an obstruction,” said Richfield coach Kim Niederluecke. “So they have to wait until the play is dead and then make a determination if she hadn’t been obstructed with, could she have scored. And both umpires felt she could have scored if she hadn’t been slowed down.

“I think if she hadn’t been obstructed with, she’d have been in,” Niederluecke said. “Because it was pretty close.”

It was a tough loss for the Simley Spartans.

“We were two outs away from finishing up,” said head coach Kelly Darrow. “That’s two years in a row we’ve lost here on the last play.”

The loss spoiled a big hitting day by the Simley team, led by a two-run home run by first baseman Ellie Ryan in the sixth and a solo homer by Jordan Sheridan in the second. Adrianna Guevara had a two-run double in the third which gave Simley a 3-0 lead.

For six and a half innings, Simley pitcher Celina Nehmer held the Spartans mostly in check, allowing only a run-scoring double by Richfield’s Kalie Johnson.

“I think the whole team played well,” said Simley coach Darrow. “We played better than we have in a long time.”

Richfield improved to 2-0 on the season and in the Classic Suburban Conference. Simley fell to 0-2 in both league games and on the season.

Simley hosts Henry Sibley Monday in another Classic Suburban Conference contest starting at 4:15 p.m.