Being a bulldog on the Bulldogs

Woodstown pitcher Clark faces down some tough situations in win; Wygand homers, but still searching for hit No. 100


By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

GLASSBORO – It’s late in a game that carries some major playoff implications. The home team is threatening your lead with two runners in scoring position and the winning run at the plate. One miscalculation could mean the difference between winning and a bitter defeat.

In that situation, Woodstown softball coach Rob Hildebrand could think of no one he’d rather have in the circle to stare it down than Leah Clark.

Clark faced just such a scenario in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday and got through it with just a few frayed nerves, preserving a 6-4 Woodstown victory that locked down second place in the TCC Diamond Division and likely an opening-round home game in the upcoming South Jersey Group I playoffs.

The Wolverines carried a 6-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh with the lower half of Glassboro’s lineup coming to the plate. The Bulldogs didn’t go quietly, putting runners at second and third after a sacrifice bunt, but Clark got out of it with a strikeout and a game-inning grounder to No. 9 hitter Erica Rode, who delivered a two-run opposite-field single in her previous at-bat.

“She’s a bulldog,” Hildebrand said. “The girls call her ‘Bulldog,’ we call her ‘Bulldog;’ she always digs deep. Never had adversity slow her way her entire career. She knows how to get the job done. I wouldn’t want anybody else on there except for her.”

It wasn’t the first time in the game Clark turned back a threat. She faced two bases-loaded situations earlier in the game and got out of them with minimal damage.

The Bulldogs already had a run home in the first inning when they loaded the bases with two outs, but Clark got an infield out to end the inning.

They loaded the bases with none out in the sixth and Rode poked her two-run single into right field to make it 6-4. They reloaded the bases – still with no outs — then Clark hunkered down and got out of it with a strikeout, a fly to center that didn’t move the runners, and an inning-ending force at third.

“It’s definitely intense and a little frustrating when it’s bases loaded and you know you really need those outs,” Clark said. “Sometiems it just doesn’t work out and other times I’m able to dig deep and make it work.

“It’s a lot of pressure knowing we don’t bat again and there’s only so much I can do. Either they hit or they get out. It’s definitely something I have to kind of take a deep breath and focus in on getting the outs we need. It’s very flattering (to hear the coach’s praise). I like to try to have that confidence in myself as well knowing I’ve been in situations before, I know I can handle the pressure. It means a lot that they believe in me like that, too.”

Clark only gave up five hits but she walked seven.

What might have made it a little easier for Clark to get through the tough innings is she was always pitching with the lead. The Wolverines jumped out 3-0 in the first inning with the help of some loose defense on the Bulldogs’ part and made it 4-1 in the third on Ellie Wygand’s third homer of the year to chase Glassboro starter Taylor Adcock.

The shot to left might have been Wygand’s 100th career hit had Glassboro third baseman Marissa Pasquarella not fumbled her leadoff grounder twice. It was ruled an error in both dugouts.

The homer was Wygand’s only hit of the game. She grounded out to short for the second out of the fifth inning and fouled out to first leading off the seventh.

“It was a little disappointing (not to reach the milestone) because it’s the one game my dad came to see,” Wygand said. “It was definitely a big game and I really hoped to get it today, but I’m really glad I still have time and a few more games to hit that.”

She agreed she may have been a little anxious in her final two at-bats with the milestone so close within her grasp.

“I think I did a little bit,” she said. “I think I was hoping she was going to throw me a strike and swung at pitches I shouldn’t have. I think going into the next two games I’m just going to relax a little bit more and sit back and wait for my pitch to drive.”