June 30, 2024
WESTMINSTER, Colo. – Even if you've done just about everything you can to help your team, many moments in competition are spent feeling pretty helpless.
Ariel Krueger had driven in the go-ahead run for Team Germany in the top of the sixth inning Saturday against Central America in a tense 18u Internatinal Challenge championship bracket game, then made two strong, accurate throws from shortstop for the first two outs in the bottom of the frame.
But she could only watch and hope when reliever Grace Glowaki's pitch to Adiah Fountain was launched high and deep to right field, fully aware that Fountain had already homered in the fourth inning to tie the game. By a matter of a few feet from the fence, the ball was caught, Germany could breathe, and the team could celebrate a 3-2 victory at the Christopher Complex.
Germany will face Cuba in a quarterfinal on Sunday morning, as teams at the special Triple Crown Sports event push to the title game at 2 p.m. Noelle Rofkahr pitched five terrific innings for Germany, and the team worked through multiple baserunning errors to hold off Central America, who got their own impressive pitching effort by Aiko Conaway, a Marshall commit for college.
Krueger drilled a single to score Kayla Vahlberg (Weatherford) in the sixth, who had singled, stole second and moved to third on a sublime sacrifice bunt from Macie Bush. It was an impressive moment of calm when Germany hadn't scored since the first inning and seen runners called out on the bases in the third and fourth innings.
"I knew I had to get the ball on the ground, not like a high-fly ball, do some situational hitting. She kept coming inside, and I just didn't want to hit a grounder to third or short," said Krueger, who will play college softball at Duke. "In the dugout, we knew we had to pick a teammate up if somebody messed up. We got the job done when it really mattered.
"Noelle was amazing, hitting her spots, working with the strike zone and getting us grounders."
Rofkahr got a roster spot on the German team last year but didn't get a lot of work, but the coaching staff was pleased to see her back in the mix for 2024. She proved her savvy by not really even flinching when the squad couldn't push any more runs across after the first inning – until Krueger's big hit in the sixth.
"I just tried to remember how good of a defense I had behind me. If I can trust that, what my pitching coach is calling and can hit my spots, the defense will produce outs," she said. "The best thing to overcome (Fountain's homer in the fourth) is to almost pretend it didn't happen. There's nothing you can do about it. Just go back, get ahead, hit my spots. I had no doubt we'd get a run that last inning."
"We are quite used to grinding for runs, that's how this team is built," said head coach Mark Stoicheff. "We did hit home runs back-to-back (Friday), but this team was meant to put the ball on the ground and run.
"Noelle justified the faith we all had in her. And listen, Ariel is going to be on television a lot playing for Duke. With her arm, she can throw off her back foot better than most people go off the front foot."
