Following a community service outing Wednesday afternoon, the 36-member team will be paired down to 20. That group will take the field for the first time as the Women's National Team Thursday morning for practice.
With the Red-Blue series all even at a game apiece, the teams took to the field for game three. Red stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first three innings of the contest, scoring a pair of runs in each of the first and third innings.
Ashley Langoni drew a lead-off walk in the first and was standing on third with one out. Malaika Underwood laced a single to right field to give Red a 1-0 lead. Tamara Holmes followed with a sacrifice fly to center for a 2-0 lead.
After a scoreless second inning, Red struck for two more runs in the third. Jane Uh led off the inning with a base hit to center field. Clarisa Navarro singled to put two on with nobody out. Underwood moved the runners 90 feet with a ground out and Holmes collected her second RBI of the game with another sacrifice fly. Caitlin Everett made it a 4-0 game with a two-out single to center.
Blue began its comeback with a three-run top of the fourth. Michelle Snyder worked a lead-off walk and moved to second on a base hit by Donna Williams. With one out and both runners in scoring position, Lilly Jacobson cut the lead in half with a single to center. On the throw home, Jacobson advanced to second. The extra base loomed large for Red as she was standing on third with two outs and raced home on a wild pitch to make it a one-run ballgame, 4-3.
Trina Moquette pitched a scoreless fourth inning setting up the seven-run fifth inning for Blue. Micaela Minner started the rally with a one-out single. A walk to Tara Tembey put two on for Williams, who delivered a two-run double to right field putting Blue on top, 5-4. Jacobson singled home two more runs to make it 7-4.
With the bases loaded, Tara Harbert lined a single to left to drive in a run and Minner collected her second hit of the frame, driving in two more runs, giving Blue a commanding 10-4 lead.
Red got two of the runs back in the bottom half of the inning to pull back within four, 10-6. Uh led off with a base hit and moved to second on a walk to Moquette. A walk to Tawny Swan loaded the bases for Everett, who hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the first run of the frame. Makenzie Vandergeest followed with a base hit to drive in Moquette.
Blue added to its lead in the top of the eighth inning, picking up three runs on three hits. Tembey walked to open the inning and moved to second on a base knock by Kayla Bufardeci. Jacobson drove in her fourth run of the game with a base hit to right. An errant pick off throw allowed Bufardeci to score and Bessie Noll singled to make it a 13-6 contest.
Red scratched across a run in the bottom of the eighth to account for the final score. With two outs Uh doubled to deep center. She came around to score on a base hit off the bat of Moquette to make it 13-7.
Bufardeci continued to impress on the mound as she pitched two more scoreless innings. In four innings pitched during the trials she retired 12 of 14 batters faced.
Lacy Wood and Susanne Boden each tossed scoreless innings for the Blue squad, while Anna Kimbrell and Ibarra threw one scoreless inning each.
