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Force robbed of a win by Bandits

July 19, 2008 - National Pro Fastpitch (NPF)
Philadelphia Force News Release


Elgin, IL- Samantha Finley hit a two-run walk-off home run as the Philadelphia Force fell to the Comcast Chicago Bandits by a score of 6-4 at Judson Sports Complex. The two teams spilt the four-game series with the Force taking the middle two games.

The Force (19-9) jumped on former teammate Kristina Thorson in the top of the second inning. Chelsea Spencer led off the inning with a walk. Rookie Megan Gibson followed with her third home run of the season to put the Force up 2-0.

Force rookies struck again in the fifth inning. Rookie Savannah Long led off the frame with a solo blast to left-center field. For Long, it was home run number three on the season. One out later, rookie Kristen Miller stroked a single up the middle. Miller was pinch ran for at first base by rookie Amy Hudson. With veteran Trena Peel at the plate, Peel swung through strike three, but Hudson stole second on the pitch. Veteran Clare Burnum then singled up the middle, and a charging Hudson beat the throw in from the outfield to give the Force a 4-0 lead.

But the Bandits (15-13) came alive in the bottom of the fifth. Mindy Cowles started the comeback by reaching on a single through the left side. In a 4-0 game, Laura Harms was asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt, which she did successfully. Force pitcher Katie Burkhart got the next batter, Aileen Morales, to ground out to third base, holding the runner at second. Stacy May, who was 7-for-12 in the series and 3-for-3 in this game, singled to drive in Cowles. Kristie Fox made the game tighter by launching her third home run of the season, which cut the Force lead to just one run.

The Force would get one of the runs back in their next at-bat. With one out, Spencer took a Thorson pitch over the outfield fence to put the Force up by two. It was Spencer's third dinger of the season. At this point, Thorson was replaced in the circle by Jessica Sallinger.

Trailing 5-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Bandits would steal the victory. May started the winning rally with a single. Fox then blooped a single to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Burkhart (6-3) got Rachel Folden on strikes for the first out of the inning. The league's leading RBI maker, Jaime Clark, then doubled into right-center to score May with the Bandits' fourth run, and moved Fox to third. The Bandits would try their favorite suicide squeeze play, but Burnum made an outstanding backhand flip to catcher Miller to record the second out of the inning. The Force threw down to first base trying to catch Trimboli sleeping, but did not the call from the first base umpire. After a brief discussion about that play at first, Finley sent everyone home with a line-drive home run that bounced off of and over the top of the fence. It was Finley's fourth home run of the year.

Burkhart's record dropped to 6-3. The Bandits produced 12 hits off of the rookie hurler and Burkhart struck out six.

For the Bandits, Sallinger gets the win. She improves to 7-5. Thorson was responsible for all five Force runs and she struck out five in 5.1 innings of work. Sallinger went 1.2 and yielded four hits and struck out three.

Player-coach Jodie Cox made her 2008 debut in the seventh inning when she came in as a pinch runner for Kellie Wilkerson, who was 1-for-4 with a single and leads the league batting .451.

Those two teams play four more games but this time they are at ECTB Stadium in Allentown. Game one is set for Monday, July 21 at 7:05 p.m.

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