Photo by James Parrish Junior Belles pitcher Jacey Wiggins throws a pitch against the Plainfield Twisters.

Photo by James Parrish Sydney Standage takes a pitch in the sixth inning against the Plainfield Twisters.

The Plainfield Twisters scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on Friday to pull ahead of the North Platte Junior Belles and earn a 7-5 win in the double elimination tournament at the ASA Northern Nationals.

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"They just had more hits than we did," said North Platte Junior Belles coach Shelly Byrn. "It was a good game but we weren't able to execute with runners on base. We need to do that more consistently."

In the top of the first inning, Sydney Standage hit a two-out solo home run over the fence in left field to give the Junior Belles a 1-0 lead.

But in the bottom of the first inning, the Twisters from Plainfield, Ill., a town of 37,000 that sits 30 miles southwest of Chicago, scored a run in the bottom of the first and then added two more in the second to take a 3-1 lead.

In the top of the fourth and fifth innings, the Belles scored a run each to tie the game at 3-3. Then in the sixth, they went up 4-3 after Standage singled to left field. The Belles added another run to have a two-run lead going into the bottom of the sixth.

But the Belles couldn't hold the lead. After a leadoff base hit, the Twisters pulled to within 5-4 off a single that bounced off the fence.

Plainfield then tied the game with a one-out sacrifice fly to right field and then scored two runs with another single to have a 7-5 lead going into the last three outs for the Belles.

In the seventh, the Junior Belles had runners on first and second base with one out. But neither Megan Ruppert, who had the game-winning hit in the same situation on Thursday against the Orland Park A's, or Samantha Byrn could come up up with the hit and the Twisters moved on to the winner's bracket.

"We got some hits (in the sixth) and that's what we wanted," Byrn said. "Every team here is going to get hits and we just didn't do enough of that today."

The Junior Belles will play the Colorado Dirt Devils in an elimination game at 8 am.

Also on Friday, the North Platte Sensations lost 7-4 to the Illinois Cubs and they will play the Richmond Rockets at 8 am on Saturday also.

The North Platte Express also didn't fare any better either, losing 11-1 to the St. Louis Fusion. The Express will play the Orland Park A's at 10 am.