Yokota senior right-hander Erica Haas delivers against Kadena. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — Erica Haas and Julia Petruff are hardly strangers to each other. They battled on the mound two years ago on Okinawa and played against each other in club softball at the middle-school level.
In their latest inter-district meeting, Yokota’s Haas got the better of Kadena’s Petruff in a duel of senior Panthers right-handers Friday and a showdown of two-time defending Far East tournament champion teams.
Haas allowed four hits, two earned runs, two walks and struck out 10 as Yokota outlasted Kadena 5-4 in the first game of a doubleheader. Kadena won the nightcap 6-3 in a two-inning game shortened to one hour.
“Since we didn’t get the win last time, we were more determined” in Friday’s first game, said Haas, whose Panthers are the defending two-time Far East Division II Tournament champions.
Kadena, the two-time reigning Far East Division I Tournament champion, swept Yokota 19-4 and 10-4 the last time the two teams met, on March 26, 2023.
This time around, both games were much closer. “Our team chemistry is closer this year and we were more prepared” for Kadena, Haas said.
The lead changed hands three times and the game was tied three times before Yokota went ahead for good in the sixth inning.
Haas reached on an infield single, stole second and third and scored on Kayla Bogdan’s infield single. Claire Smith then brought Bogdan home with a run-scoring hit.
Kadena tried to rally in the bottom of the frame. Petruff got aboard on an infield single and scored when Jada Wolfgang belted a triple, but was left stranded at third as Haas and Yokota hung on.
Kadena senior right-hander Julia Petruff fires toward home against Yokokta. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Yokota second baseman Gracie Kenney reaches back for a Kadena infield popup. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena third baseman Nao Grove fires toward first base against Yokota. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena's Jada Wolfgang launches the first of her two home runs Friday against Yokota. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Smith went 3-for-3 and Samaria Askew batted 2-for-3, each of the hits driving in a run each at key times for Yokota.
Askew tied it at 1-1 for Yokota in the fourth inning with a single that drove in Abigail Wright, then knocked in Smith with an infield single in the fifth that gave Yokota a 2-1 lead.
Asked if she was nervous, Askew said: “Kind of, but I was happy to shake off the nerves and beat them.”
Wolfgang put Kadena ahead 1-0 in the first inning with an inside-the-park homer to left field. Kadena rallied from behind 3-1 in the fifth, scoring a run each on an error and a passed ball.
Wolfgang in fact was Kadena’s hitting star in the two games. All told, she hit two home runs, a double and a triple – she and her coach Daniel Lynn noted that she was a single short of hitting for a cumulative cycle.
“I’ll take the home run,” Wolfgang said, adding that she was sure Kadena would not stay down long after losing the first game. “I trust my team and we’ve been putting in the work at practice.”
Petruff, who missed most of last season with a non-throwing elbow injury, gave up 10 hits, walked two and struck out 13.
Aubree Leidig got the win in the second game, allowing one hit and one walk and striking out three. Zaylee Gubler took the loss, giving up six hits and four walks while striking out four.
It was Gubler who got Yokota’s lone hit in the nightcap – a two-run inside-the-park home run to deep left center field.
On the baseball diamond, Kadena came away with a sweep of Yokota, 9-1 and 10-6. Yokota softball and baseball each play against Kubasaki on Saturday.
