Worth County's softball team, although better this year, has been through a lot of tough luck. They played their worst game of the year, an 8-2 home loss to Polo, last Tuesday. But they followed that up with a rare 17-4 blowout win over Albany, a team that had beaten them handily in the Albany Tournament earlier this year. It was the third win of the year for the Tigers and the first conference win in two years.
Coach David Gilland made some defensive changes for the game; he moved Katie Mullock from third to short, moved Kacey Smyser from first to third, and moved Rikki Hunt from shortstop to right field, which she played for the first time in her life. Brianna Fletchall moved to first. But Rikki was up to the challenge, making a difficult catch in the sunlight, which is always a problem at the Albany field during late afternoon games. The sunlight was so bad one time during a Senior League game back in 1989 that Joe Stark, who was coaching the team, actually stopped the game and stalled around in an effort to buy time for the sun to set as the Worth County players were having trouble seeing. That team had none other than Craig Hunt, Rikki's dad, playing for them; other players on that team included current Worth County Principal Jon Adwell, Andy Welch,Will Gladstone, Jeff Ruckman, Mike Moutray, and Eric Price, among others. Worth County won that game 9-8 for their first-ever senior league win over Albany on the strength of a 350-400 foot Jon Adwell home run in the top of the eighth.
The focus of the game for this year's softball team was on keeping their composure after things went wrong. Previously, they had been making mistakes in bunches and giving up big innings. But they did a much better job of keeping their composure against Albany as they were able to limit their mistakes. While they still made errors, they were all of the one-base variety; they cleaned up their throws and didn't airmail a single one thing time around.
Haven Schottel got hit to lead off the game and stole second. Leadoff walks and hit batters were critical in the game; Albany walked or hit the leadoff batter four out of the five innings that were played. Worth County walked several batters, but none of them were leadoff walks. Albany self-destructed on the basepaths as well, running their way out of some potential big innings. Kristen Andrews bunted Haven to third and she scored as Rebecca Moore scored on an error. Katie Mullock then grounded into a force at second, but then manufactured Worth County's second run of the inning. She stole second and then stole third as well. The catcher threw away the ball on the steal of third and the shortstop backed the throw up perfectly and Katie was caught between third and home. But the catcher threw another ball away during the rundown and Katie scored.
Albany's first four batters got on and Worth County walked in two runs as the game was tied up at two. But a pair of outstanding defensive plays kept it from getting worse. Brianna Fletchall made a running catch in front of the fence of a foul pop and Rebecca Moore picked off a runner on third in the frame.
Madelon Martin continued to be wild in the second inning, hitting Kacey Smyser. Brianna Fletchall bunted Kacey over to second and Sidney Davenport was hit by a pitch and stole second. Hunt got a scratch hit in front of the plate to score Smyser to put Worth County in front. Albany had their infield in for the play at the plate and to guard against the bunt as Haven was up to the plate, but it didn't matter as Haven bunted anyway and beat it out to load the bases. Kristen Andrews forced Davenport at the plate, but then Rikki Hunt beat out a force at the plate that would have been the third out. Three runs crossed the plate for Worth County with two outs as Katie Mullock got a scratch hit down the third base line to score Haven and Kristen Andrews scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-2.
The teams traded runs in the third as Haven walked in a run for Worth County and Sarah Poppa singled in a run for Albany to make it 7-3. But Worth County put the game away in the fourth as they scored eight in the inning, all with two out. Kaitlyn Davidson walked, but Kacey Smyser forced her at second for the second out of the inning. But then Madelon Martin walked the bases loaded and was finished for the night as Morgan Combs replaced her. But Rikki Hunt reached on an error when the first baseman dropped a throw to score a run, bringing up Haven. Haven Schottel got two strikes on her, but she fought an epic battle with Combs, fouling off pitch after pitch. Finally, she singled over the shortstop's head and two runs scored to open the floodgates as Sidney Davenport collided with the catcher and was safe as Haven went to second. Kristen Andrews laid down a perfect slap bunt in front of the plate and beat it out as Haven went to second. Kristen stole second and then they both scored as a wild pitch got away from the catcher, she threw the return throw to the pitcher away, and Kristen scored as well. Kaitlyn Davidson, who had been practicing batting in between innings at the batting cage on the east side of the field, saw it pay off as she singled in Katie Mullock and Rebecca Moore with a hard shot to right to cap Worth County's inning and make it 15-3.
Stephanie Ramer grounded out to score a run to make it 15-4, but Worth County got some insurance runs in the fifth. Brianna Fletchall was hit by a pitch. Kali Cameron, batting for Sidney Davenport, forced Fletchall at second but Davenport, reentering for Cameron, pulled off a successful delayed steal. Rikki Hunt reached on a dropped third strike that got away from the catcher, allowing Davenport to third. Rikki then stole second and Davenport scored on a wild pitch as Rikki took third. Haven grounded to short and should have beaten it out for her third hit, but the umpire had obviously seen enough and gave Albany a sympathy call, calling her out as Rikki scored.
Worth County ended the game on the run rule with a pair of outstanding defensive plays. There was a heartstopping moment at the start of the inning as pitcher Claire Andrews took a hard shot to her chest, but caught it with her bare hand for the first out. It took her a split second to realize that she didn't have to throw it to first. Later, Rebecca Moore threw away a pickoff attempt to third, but Katie Mullock was right there to back it up and she threw home for the final out of the game.
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