Tuesday, September 1, 2015

North Nodaway Wins First Tournament in Years; Captures NEN Tourney

David Carroll's Mustangs only have one senior on its squad this year -- Breann O'Riley. But that doesn't seem to matter for his squad, which won its first tournament in years Saturday by downing Northeast Nodaway 7-3 and South Nodaway 5-1. Playing against Worth County, Carroll's squad seemingly had its first game wrapped up leading 9-4 going into the seventh, only to make six errors in the seventh and fall behind 11-9. But Carroll's squad would not go away, getting two in the bottom of the inning to tie and one in the eighth for a walk-off win.

Carroll swears that Worth County Coach Dave Gilland was telling tall tales about their time coaching against each other in summer ball, but he'll take the win. Early in the Northeast Nodaway game, third baseman Taylor Combs threw away a ball to allow Northeast to go up 2-1 after one. But that turned out to be the Mustangs' only error of the afternoon, a big change from the first game to Saturday afternoon. In the meantime, Northeast dropped two fly balls in the third inning that allowed North Nodaway to take the lead. Madison Thompson singled home Keagan O'Riley and Kelsi Oberhauser grounded out to score Breann O'Riley in the inning. Chloe Schimming reached when Northeast Nodaway right fielder Emily Redden dropped a fly ball to score Cheyanne Herzberg to make it 4-2. The score might have been much worse had it not been for two perfectly executed defensive plays by Northeast. On one, they executed a perfect fake to first throw to third play that got Thompson trapped in a rundown. On another, first baseman Alicia Smith did the splits to save third baseman Talina Nelson an error and get Northeast out of the inning.

Northeast shot themselves in the foot again in the fourth. Pitcher Dallis Coffelt threw away Audrey Trimble's bunt and centerfielder Maggie Schmitz dropped Breann O'Riley's fly ball as Trimble scored. O'Riley later came home on Thompson's pop fly single to right field.

Dallis atoned for her error in the fifth as she tripled all the way to the wall in right for a triple. She came home on Talina Nelson's single up the middle. Oberhauser singled home Breann O'Riley in the sixth for North Nodaway's final run.

South Nodaway has been one of those teams which has hung well with teams, only to fade in later innings. Their pitcher, Elizabeth Turpin, was seemingly unhittable through the first two innings as the Mustangs could only muster one hit off her. In the meantime, Devanna Ostrander grounded out to score Katelyn Kramer to put South Nodaway up 1-0. But the big turning point came in the third, when North Nodaway pitcher Madison Thompson froze Haley Nielson with the bases loaded to get out of the third. North Nodaway responded in the bottom of the inning as Breann O'Riley doubled in the gap in right center, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored as Keagan O'Riley reached on a dropped line drive by South Nodaway second baseman Katelyn Kramer. Kelsi Oberhauser homered to the wall in right to score herself and O'Riley, and Schimming successfully stretched a single into a double and scored Madison Thompson in the process to put North Nodaway up 4-1.

The Mustangs added an insurance run in the fifth as Kelsi Oberhauer reached with two outs on a dropped fly ball and Thompson singled her home.

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