Tigers, Grizzlies beaten by darkness

Softball: The teams battle to a 1-1 tie in the 13-inning league softball opener

By Dan Brood

The Times, Apr 12, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

STRONG PERFORMANCE — Tigard senior Katie Alexander gave up just one run over 13 innings pitched.

DAN BROOD / The Times

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McMINNVILLE — Thirteen innings.

One-hundred and eighty-one minutes.

Thirty-seven total strikeouts.

Two big-time, clutch pitching performances.

Many big defensive plays. Only two runs scored.

And, as it turned out, it was all for nothing.

But it still was a heck of a game.

The Tigard and McMinnville high school softball teams battled to a 1-1 deadlock in a Pacific Conference opener that was called, due to darkness, after 13 innings of play last Thursday at McMinnville High School.

“Oh my gosh,” Tigard coach Connie Jolley said after the 3-hour, 1-minute contest where neither team was able to emerge victorious. “It was a great game by two great teams.”

Each team got strong pitching performances in the contest. For McMinnville, sophomore hurler Anna Bertrand gave up just three hits while striking out 27 and walking just two in her 13 innings of work.

For the Tigers, senior Katie Alexander, in 13 innings, scattered 10 hits while striking out 10 and walking one.

Alexander seemed to be especially tough when McMinnville had runners in scoring position.

“It was pretty intense, but I was really relaxed,” Alexander said. “I didn’t even know what inning it was. It was mental toughness, I guess. I was determined — it’s personal for me against McMinnville. Last year, when we played them, I got hit on the hand by a pitch in the top of the seventh and it swelled up pretty bad.”

Tigard had trouble getting its bats going early against Bertrand. The Tigers went down in order in each of the first three innings.

But they finally got going in the top of the fourth.

Junior Heidi Pizer started things in the frame when she drew a two-out walk. Sophomore Ashley Suter then reached on a McMinnville fielding error, with Pizer moving to second on the play. Freshman Chelsea Biglow then singled to left, driving in Pizer to give Tigard a 1-0 lead.

The Grizzlies answered back in the fifth, getting an unearned run of their own.

Tigard committed back-to-back errors to start the inning, giving McMinnville runners on first and second with no out. The runners moved up on a groundout.

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