Grace Schottel struck out 12 North Nodaway batters Wednesday evening and the Worth County Junior High softball team won the second of back to back encounters, 14-3. They played the third game in three nights in a row Thursday night, traveling to Maysville.
Worth County gave Grace all the runs she would need in the first inning and Schottel helped herself out with a hit. Grace McElvain added another single and a series of walks and wild pitches put Worth County up 2-0. Haley Hunt got a third run on a delayed steal of home and Jessi Badell's single plated McElvain and Emily Thomas to make it 5-0.
North Nodaway got two back as #20 crushed one to center field to bring in two and make it 5-2, but from there, Grace got stronger as the game progressed. She was changing speeds throughout the game, throwing her change at any time in the count and adjusting to the umpire's strike zone after the first inning.
Mollie Blaine hit a chopper off the pitcher's glove into center field to score Abbi Caddenhead and later came around to score on a wild pitch to make it 7-2. The backstop was playing havoc with the Mustang catchers all night. The backstop is wooden and the caroms off of it are very unpredictable; some will bounce right back to the catcher and some will bounce 30 feet away. Worth County catcher Haley Hunt did the best thing one can do in that situation; she was able to keep the ball from getting to the backstop and Grace Schottel did her part by throwing strikes for the most part. When Haley Hunt came out after a collision at first, Grace McElvain stepped in and caught in the 4th and 5th.
Grace Schottel struck out her 4th and 5th batters in the second and Emily Thomas caught a pop fly at third, putting both hands on the ball to do so.
Worth County scored six more and batted around in the third as this time, North Nodaway could not blame the crazy backstop as most of their wounds were self-inflicted. Emily Thomas beat out a slow chopper that the third baseman threw away, moving her to second. Emily went to third on a passed ball and Jessi Badell walked and stole. That put runners on second and third. That was when the havoc started. Kennedy Galanakis reached on a dropped third strike and Emily Thomas broke for home and was safe as Badell toook third. Then, Kennedy Galanakis took off for second while the catcher still had the ball and nobody covered second or talked as the throw hit Kennedy as Badell scored on the play. Two walks and a groundout from Mollie Blaine scored Kennedy and then Grace Schottel reached on a dropped throw that rolled away for a two-base error as Abbi Caddenhead and Mollie Blaine scored on the play.
Grace Schottel wreaked her own havoc on the basepaths, constantly getting huge leads off base and daring the pitcher and catcher to throw her out; she finally got a delayed steal of third as the ball was being returned to the pitcher. She then did the same thing from third and drew several throws but it didn't matter as she scored on a wild pitch to make it 13-2. Grace walked in a run in the fourth for Worth County's final run as Mattie Downing scored.
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