Knights’ McKenzie Howard walkoff home run caps storybook ending

College Avenue Knight McKenzie Howard slides safely home just ahead of WCI Red Devil catcher Lauren Adams’ tag with the TVRA Tier I Girls Fast Pitch championship-winning run. (Jeff Tribe Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

A Hollywood screenwriter could not have scripted a more dramatic conclusion to the Thames Valley Regional Athletics Girls fastball season.

“Three and two (count), two outs, down 2-1, a runner on third,” said Woodstock College Avenue Knights coach Ryan Stafford following McKenzie Howard’s Tier I championship two-run walkoff home run on Thursday, May 21 at Woodstock’s Southside Park. “You don’t get any better than that.”

Woodstock CI Red Devils pitcher Lilli Wynberg had gotten ahead of Howard 0-2, but the Knights hitter battled back to full, fouling off a tough 1-2 pitch on the outside corner to stay alive.

“I was thinking hit it hard,” Howard recalled of the decisive 3-2 delivery, “but don’t try to aim for the fence.”

She managed to find it on the roll via the right-centre field gap however, driving the ball between two Red Devils outfielders on the fly. Knights pinch-runner Myla Reissner, who had replaced Sophie White after the former reached on a two-out error, stole second and took third as the throw got past second and into centre field, came home easily with the tying run. Howard followed, running hard out of the box and rounding third with Stafford waving her on, sliding across home plate a fraction of a second ahead of WCI catcher Lauren Adams’ tag.

Even if Stafford had been throwing up the stop sign, Howard admitted she probably would have kept going.

“It was intense,” she said of a compressed several-second span which seemed to pass in a flash. “It goes by like that.”

“We had the right hitter at the right time,” added Stafford of a talented Team Canada U17 roster member, coming to the plate for the Knights with the championship game on the line.

To be fair to Wynberg and the Red Devils, the script could easily have been flipped to an alternate ending. The Red Devils had opened scoring in the top of the third, plating one run with two out and leaving runners at second and third. White scored to tie things at one in the home fourth, courtesy of a Payton Jones RBI. That tie lived into the sixth when Wynberg helped her own cause with a two-out RBI triple off of Howard, her potential insurance run dying on the bag at third.

“I managed to see the ball on that one and it just went,” Wynberg recalled.

She worked a one-two-three bottom of the sixth, McKenzie’s older sister Morgan coming on to work a four batter, scoreless top of the seventh.

“I’ve been on both sides,” said McKenzie, knowing full well how the other side of the story feels. “It sucks.”

Disappointed in the moment, Wynberg could still look back on a graduating year full of fun and development.

“This is an amazing group of girls. Most of them are Grade 9, so they’re just going to continue and grow and take the team where we want to be.”

The Red Devils moved up from TVRA Tier II to Tier I this year added coach Martha Trepanier, a young, talented group proving they more than belonged.

“We had a fantastic year.”

One day earlier, ‘Big Red’ Wynberg had pitched her team into the final, denying a tenacious Ingersoll DCI Blue Bombers squad through a 6-4 final. IDCI’s Erin Plaquet led off the top of the seventh with a triple, plating on a one-out three-bagger over the centre fielder’s head. WCI’s hurler bore down to deny the comeback however, recording the game’s final two outs on a pop up to the catcher and ground ball to second.

“It was close, we almost got it, just a little short,” said Bombers catcher McKenna Weber, disappointed with the loss, but taking it in stride. “It was a fun team.”

“I’m really, really proud of these kids,” added IDCI coach Becky Elliott. “All year long they have fought back.

“A great season. Short, but great.”

The Knights got into the final with a 15-14 win over Strathroy DCI, also Wednesday, May 20th, proving sports scripts tend to write themselves, regardless of expectation. CASS got up early said Stafford, who substituted freely, the Knights hanging on for a tight one-run win in an offensive battle featuring home runs from Hannah Rysken (2), Jones and Emma Gear.

“It was a tale of two finals, for sure,” said Stafford.

He reiterated his previous contention the level of competition has risen in the TVRA Southeast, a liberal sprinkling of club players throughout the league now including Woodstock Nationals fastball representation.

“Ball is going to be better in Woodstock, because of them,” Stafford concluded.