By Chris Girandola, Times Correspondent
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
SEMINOLE — It has become a simple formula for East Lake this season.
Score a run then let Alyssa Bache do her thing.
The Eagles have been more than proficient this year at the plate, scoring six or more runs in six of their wins. They've had two 1-0 victories this year, and the last time Bache gave up a run was more than three weeks ago, during a 4-1 win over Oviedo.
Tuesday, Bache was on her way to another ho-hum perfect game at Seminole when suddenly things got interesting.
Not that it worried the Florida-signee, but after allowing a squib hit to Lauren Brucker that traveled 3 feet in the sixth inning, Bache allowed two more hits and her first run in more than three weeks.
The senior settled down, though, and retired the last three batters for a 5-1 win.
"Oh, well, at least we got the 'W,' right?" said Bache (10-0), who had 14 strikeouts and came close to recording her third perfect game of the season. "Seminole played a great game and made me work harder than I thought I had to. It's good for us as a team to have (this type of game) because it makes us continue to work to improve."
East Lake (11-0) broke through against Seminole starter Jennie Sittloh in the fourth inning after the sophomore pitcher had held the Eagles hitless through the first three frames.
Erin Rawls came up with the big hit of the inning with two outs and two on with a line drive single to right to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead.
"Whenever you have Alyssa on the mound, we're just trying our best to get her a run," said Rawls, who went 2-for-4. "We didn't think the game would turn out the way it did, so it's nice that we were able to add those insurance runs."
Amanda Weaver gave the Eagles a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning when she followed Rawls' hit with an RBI-double. Weaver did it again an inning later with the bases loaded when her infield single drove in a runner from third to put East Lake up 4-0.