Tiger Softball Clinches King City Tourney With Wild Win Over Hardin-Central

Worth County came from behind to get a wild 14-10 win over Hardin-Central and clinch the King City Tournament Saturday in their second game. The King City game would not have affected the outcome, since Worth County got the head to head tiebreak with the Bulldogs. King City had lost to both Hardin-Central and South Holt.

Hardin-Central had come in with only one loss, and had beaten King City and South Holt in earlier action Saturday.

First, it looked like Worth County would have an easy time at it. With one out, Anna Gladstone singled and stole second and third. Megan Cassavaugh struck out, but then Worth County put together singles from Merrideth Spiers and Jill Hardy and a double from Hailey Adwell to make it 3-0.

But then Hardin-Central struck back as Daylea Shaner doubled, Brogan DeMint singled and went to second on an error, and Carly Thacker singled her home to cut Worth County’s lead to 3-2.

And then all hell threatened to break loose in the second as pitcher Braidy Hunt began fighting the strike zone. Chloe Bowman walked, stole second, stole third, and came home when Worth County threw it around. Gracie Gibson walked and stole. Rachel White struck out, but Shaner hit a slow roller up the middle that nobody had a play on and stole second.

Brogan DeMint hit a grounder to pitcher Braidy Hunt, who threw to third to pick off Gibson, but threw wildly, putting runners on second and third and bringing another run home. Izabella Anderson walked and Carly Thacker singled to drive in two. Alexis Yockel singled to drive in two more before Worth County finally got out of the inning. When the dust had settled, Worth County was down 8-3 and looked like they had nothing to live for.

The first four runners for Worth County reached safely in the third to give them a glimmer of hope. Merrideth Spiers singled, Jill Hardy walked, Hailey Adwell singled, and Morgan Beagle provided a big blow, a two-run single to right to make the deficit more manageable at 8-5. Braidy Hunt hit a pop fly down the right field line that second baseman Brogan DeMint got to, but Hailey Adwell alertly tagged up and scored on the play. Anna Spainhower, returning from an illness, singled to left to make it 8-7.

Hunt finally set down the Bulldogs in order, and consecutive hit batters for Worth County in the fourth opened the floodgates again, Jill Hardy singled to score Megan Cassavaugh and took second on left fielder Chloe Bowman’s bobble as Merrideth Spiers was safe at third. Hailey Adwell walked and Morgan Beagle reached on Alexis Yockel’s error at third as she tried to hurry a throw home and bobbled it. Jill Hardy scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-8.

Abby McNelly replaced Mackenzie Smith on the mound and struck out Braidy Hunt, but Merrideth Spiers singled and went to second on a throw to third. Aivry Griffin grounded to short and Cassavaugh was cut down at the plate for the second out, but Anna Gladstone hit a grounder to Anderson at short, who didn’t realize there were two outs and threw away a throw home as Anna took second and Aivry Griffin third. Megan Cassavaugh reached on a dropped fly ball as two more runs scored to make it 14-8.

Carly Thacker’s two run home run in the fourth cut it to 14-10, and had she made it back up in the fifth, things would have gotten interesting. Mackenzie Smith doubled into the left center gap to start the inning. Rachel White and Daylea Shaner struck out, but Brogan DeMint kept the game alive with a walk. This was the last inning, since time had expired. Izabella Anderson came up, and Thacker was on the on-deck circle, but Anderson’s drive to the wall in right was caught by Hailey Adwell to end the game.