Tunstall capitalizes on Salem’s errors in Region IV softball championship

SALEM — Jennifer Slaughter watched the ball sail past Salem’s first baseman as she dashed to first after hitting a hard grounder to the shortstop. She slid into second base as the ball was heaved into left field, got up and hustled all the way home on the Spartans’ double fielding error.

“It was like a circus,” Salem coach Ron Reynolds said. “If I had a tent I would throw it over (the field). But it happens. You’re going to have those games. We just picked a bad game to have it.”

Tunstall knocked Salem around early and took advantage of the Spartans’ late mistakes to capture a 4-0 victory in the Region IV championship game Friday night on Salem’s home field. The Trojans will host a state tournament quarterfinal game Tuesday against either Turner Ashby or Spotswood, whichever loses today’s Region III title game. Salem will visit the Region III champ on Tuesday.

“They play their championship game (tonight) at 7 o’clock at Harrisonburg High School, and I will be there. That’s how much I want to find out about who we’re playing,” Tunstall coach Roger Cook said, shocked at how little Salem seemed to know about his squad. “It surprised me that when you get this far in tournament play … that the opposing team doesn’t know enough about you to respect you, especially where you can hit the ball.”

He was especially referring to the very beginning of the game, when Salem crept up its defense on diminutive Tunstall (21-3) leadoff batter Jenna Rudder, who responded by hammering a triple off the very top of the outfield fence.

“I guess my size and everything, and being leadoff, they just think I’m going to bunt the ball or slap it a little bit, but it felt good to take them out, to hit it over their heads,” she said. “That would rattle me, so I know it rattled them.”

Rudder scored two batters later when Salem (19-6) unsuccessfully attempted to catch courtesy runner Catelyn Stephens stealing second, and Stephens scored on a squeeze bunt by Emily Atkinson as Tunstall took a 2-0 lead after one.

“Obviously they misread Jenna,” Brittany Arnn said after striking out six, walking none and scattering five hits to earn the win. “They were playing her 20 feet from the plate and then she jacks one almost over, so I think that kind of shook them up a little bit and we just kept pounding it from there and we just took advantage off all their mistakes.”

Tunstall was largely held in check the rest of the way and was actually out-hit by Salem, which committed three errors to the Trojans’ zero. Salem’s Ellen Weaver, a lefty like Arnn, allowed four hits and just two earned runs while striking out five.

But those three errors and a lack of timely hitting proved the Spartans’ undoing. Salem never advanced a runner past second base and allowed Tunstall to double its lead in the sixth inning.

Heather Francisco was issued a walk with two outs and scored from first when Slaughter reached base for the second time in the game thanks to a Salem fielding error. The Spartans compounded their problems when their first baseman overthrew second base while trying to get Slaughter, and the Trojans’ designated player hustled home as the ball rolled into the outfield.

“I got up and kept going and as I was rounding third, Mr. Cook was running beside me saying, ‘I want you to score! I want you to score!’ and actually, he was running faster than me,” Slaughter said after providing the Trojans a late four-run lead. “It was a big run … and that really shows that at this point you can’t make errors. It’s beyond that point.”