The Flagstaff Girls Softball Little League (FGSLL) Majors All-Star team dropped its opening game of the Arizona District 1 Tournament against Winslow on Tuesday night in an extra-inning thriller.
Winslow won the game in walk-off fashion, 15-14, on a bang-bang play at the plate where the runner was called safe.
Flagstaff starting pitcher Rowyn Chase recorded 14 strikeouts in six innings of work before Lluvia Salas Saucedo came in to pitch in the seventh.
The Flagstaff All-Stars struck first when Brielle Smith drew a walk and maneuvered her way home despite Winslow striking out the side. Chase also struck out the side in the bottom of the first, but not before Winslow scored four runs. Chase struck out the side in order in the second inning.
Flagstaff bounced back with a five-run third inning to take its first lead of the game. Angalisia Vallejos drove in Trinity Zamora-Gilmer on an infield single to cut the lead to two. Vallejos later came in to score. Brielle Smith again provided some offense with the game-tying RBI single to score Madison Smith. McKenna Martin gave Flagstaff the lead with an RBI to make it 5-4. Martin made a nice move to avoid a tag while stealing second, which helped her score thanks to a ground ball from Saucedo for the fifth and final run of the inning.
Winslow matched Flagstaff鈥檚 five runs in its third frame at the plate to take a 9-6 lead. Despite that, Chase continued to deal in the circle by striking out the side for the third consecutive inning.
Ayleen Martinez led off the fourth inning with a hard-hit fly ball to center field and reached third base. Devin Snider hit a hard grounder to second to bring Martinez in. Winslow got out of the inning with a double play on a dropped third strike to keep a two-run lead.
Chase tossed back-to-back 1-2-3 innings, which consisted of four strikeouts and two groundouts, including one to herself. Brielle Smith made a nice play on a ground ball at shortstop to end the fourth inning.
Ava Simonton cut the lead back to one in the fifth inning with an RBI groundout to score Vallejos and make it 9-8.
Down to their final two outs, Flagstaff rallied for five runs in the top of the sixth inning. Saucedo sliced a double down the right field line and came in to tie the game on a dropped third strike. Martinez drove in the leading run with an RBI single. She then stole second and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 11-9.
Elisa Benitez ran around the bases on a dropped third strike that also brought in Snider.
Winslow scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to send the game to extras. An inside-the-park home run cut the lead to two. A pair of singles also led to baserunners making it back to home plate to tie the game at 13 with more softball to play.
Vallejos started the top of the seventh inning as a runner on second base per extra-inning rules. She scored on a single from Simonton, but that would be all Flagstaff got.
Winslow quickly evened the score with a single that drove in its initial runner from second base. It won the game on a line drive deflected by Saucedo in the circle to the shortstop, who got the out at first. Winslow鈥檚 lead baserunner rounded third and had a near collision at home plate. The runner was ruled safe to send Winslow to the next round on Thursday against Wednesday鈥檚 winner between WMA and Page.
Flagstaff played on Wednesday evening at Continental Park against Silver in the losers' bracket, which had lost to Page, 15-12, earlier on Tuesday in the double elimination tournament.