The third time proved to be a charm for Letitia Lane Photography when facing Hall’s Backhoe Friday night.
After two losses to the undefeated league leader, Letitia Lane Photography snapped Hall’s Backhoe’s five-game winning streak with a 7-5 victory in extra innings.
A passed ball proved to be the difference as Natalie Bond and Erin Lane both came around to score when Ashton Whiles’ pitch got away from Grace Rains in the top of the seventh inning. Bond and Lane, who each walked  to reach base, sprung on the opportunity to score. Bond flew in with ease as Whiles’ toss to the plate was out of reach for Rains. Lane saw the ball trickling into the infield and astutely stole home on the play, giving Letitia Lane Photography a two-run cushion going into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Hall’s Backhoe wasn’t going to go let its undefeated season go away easily, but a strikeout by Maddie Cantrell and an automatic out due to the team having only eight players quickly put the home team down to its last out.
Grace Rains gave Hall’s Backhoe a glimmer of hope when she singled to center field, but the comeback attempt was dashed quickly. Whiles hit a ball to second base, where Savannah English scooped the ball and tagged Rains for the final out.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for Letitia Lane Photography and improved the team’s record to 4-3. Two of those losses in the streak were to Hall’s Backhoe – a 22-5 shellacking in the first meeting and a 2-1 nailbiter June 17.
Letitia Lane Photography was able to score more in the first inning of Friday’s game than in the entire second contest between the two teams. Cantrell was the spark as she drilled a pitch deep down the left-field line and circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
Carigan Aughinbaugh made it 2-0 early when she walked and eventually stole home on a wild pitch.
Hall’s Backhoe didn’t trail for long though. In a game that featured three ties and three lead changes, the home team answered back with three runs in the first inning.
Rains started a streak of four consecutive hits to begin the game when she slapped a single into left field. Whiles, Emily Mikkola and Lexie Chadwell followed suit with singles of the their own to score two runs. Kansas Hennessee provided the third run when her groundout allowed Mikkola to score.
Cantrell settled down from the shaky start to strike out the final two batters of the first inning and leave Chadwell stranded at third base.
The lead flip-flopped back to Letitia Lane Photography in the third inning. Shonacye Rutledge got things started with a one-out double and moved up on Icie Mae Craven’s groundout.
Cantrell helped her own cause by beating out an infield single – one that allowed Rutledge to come in and score the tying run.
Aughinbaugh followed with a double, pushing two runners into scoring position with two outs and Bond coming to the plate.
The big-hitting first baseman for Letitia Lane Photography fell behind 1-2, but she got all of the fourth pitch she saw and slammed the ball to the left-field fence. Two runs scored with ease, though Bond was tagged out trying to stretch the go-ahead triple into a home run.
Hall’s Backhoe got a run back in the bottom of the third on Mikkola’s second RBI single. She’d add the equalizer two innings later.
With Letitia Lane Photography clinging to a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, Mikkola drilled a pitch to center field that resulted in a two-out, inside-the-park home run to knot the score at 5-5.
The tie lasted all the way to the seventh inning, when Letitia Lane Photography got just enough breaks to end the pursuit of perfection by Hall’s Backhoe.
Whiles finished with 12 strikeouts in the loss, including three in the final inning. Mikkola led all hitters with three hits.
Cantrell had 10 strikeouts and led Letitia Lane Photography with two hits.