Sweet Home 7, Central 5
In what may be the biggest game of the season, the Huskies cracked the Central softball powerhouse 7-5 in Independence Monday evening.
At the beginning of the season, Coach Steve Hummer said that Central would be the team to beat this year. Central won the state championship two years ago with the same lineup, though Central’s pitcher did not play last season.
“Their pitcher was a little bit off,” Hummer said of Monday’s game. She walked the first two Huskies batters followed by a single from Emili Riggs and a two-run single from Shelbey Gillespie, with another walk and a pair of wild pitches. At the end of the Huskies’ first trip to the plate, they led 4-0.
“They shut us down until the seventh,” Hummer said. In the meantime, Sweet Home pitcher Bayli Riggs pitched a good game to limit the Central attack.
Riggs threw 116 pitches, 82 of them for strikes. She walked no one, struck out nine batters and gave up nine hits.
“We just played these girls on Friday,” Hummer said. “We learned a lot about them.”
They held off Central’s key hitter in Friday’s loss in Sweet Home to Central. Central pitcher Kayla Auer hit a homerun Friday to put Central out of reach. Monday, she went 0-4, with two ground balls to the pitcher and ground ball to a baseman.
“Bayli did a great job,” Hummer said. “She competed, made plays. We made plays behind her.”
With a young team, once a mistake or two is made, it’s sometimes difficult to stop the mental floodgate, Hummer said. Central picked up two runs in the second inning when the Huskies made a couple of fielding erros.
“It looked like, ‘Here we go,'” Hummer said, but Riggs got a strikeout, and Megan Rubidoux made a play to get an out, stopping a potential Central rally.
Central picked up two more runs in the fourth inning to tie the game, and running shorthanded, the Huskies almost ran into trouble in the fifth. The Huskies have several players out with injuries and had no subs.
First baseman Paige Niemi was batting, Hummer said. She was hit on the right hand, her throwing hand. Hummer took the precaution of pulling Kristen Tolle up from the junior varsity.
The next inning, Niemi kept playing, but Laura Gourley was hurt, he said. Both of the seniors refused to come out, and Tolle rode the bench for the inning.
The Huskies started the seventh inning with a 4-4 tie. Action at the plate started with an out, and Gillespie reached base on a walk, a bunting situation. Hummer knew Tolle could bunt well, so he sent her in.
“It was her first time in a varsity softball game in one of the biggest games of the year, and she performs,” Hummer said. “That was exciting.”
She hit a perfect bunt up the third baseline. Tiffanie Cuilla walked trying to bunt, and Megan Rubidoux picked up a bunt with two strikes against her.
All told, bunting and running aggressively netted the Huskies three runs and the game, Hummer said. Central scored one more run in the bottom of seven. With runners at first and third, Central hit a groundball to the pitcher and to first with a pop fly to Cuilla to end the game.
Hailee Huenergardt also collected a hit on the game.
“In softball, it’s about putting pressure on your opponent,” Hummer said. The Huskies took advantage of the situation and applied pressure early.
“They cracked under the pressure, which is unlike them,” he said. “It was a good game.”
On Friday, the Huskies lost to Central 9-0 at home.
On Thursday, the Huskies shut out Taft at home, 10-0 in five innings, and B. Riggs threw a no-hitter.
She was one batter away from a perfect game, Hummer said. She walked one batter. E. Riggs hit her sixth homerun of the season, and Gillespie hit her first. Gourley went 2-3.
The Huskies lost 9-2 at Newport on April 15.
The team is 7-6 overall and 3-3 in league.
Sweet Home 400 000 3 €“ 7 3 3
Central 020 200 1 €“ 5 9 3
Central 200 142 0 €“ 9 6 2
Sweet Home 000 000 0 €“ 0 1 4
Taft 000 00 €“ 0 0 Sweet Home 511 03 €“ 10 8 1
Sweet Home 200 000 0 €“ 2 5 5
Newport 222 003 x €“ 9 9 3