Worth County’s softball girls won a wild 18-8 victory over Pattonsburg Thursday to clinch their first conference title since 2000, when April Healy was still playing. One of the parents, Amber (Steele) Walker, played on the last conference championship team; her daughter, Aivry, starts for the Tigers.
Most of the current players were not born yet. That year, Worth County was also the State Runner-up.
The Tigers built up a 7-1 lead in their half of the fourth, gave up a six-run inning to the Panthers, and had to win it all over again. They scored four in the fifth and seven in the sixth to get the win.
Worth County clinched at least a tie with Braymer, and owns the tiebreak over the Bobcats, meaning they would play for the GRC Place Game against likely winner Putnam County on the road. Braymer has only one conference loss, so whether Worth County wins the outright title depends on the outcome of the Tigers’ game with King City Tuesday or Braymer falling to either North Andrew or Albany.
With two strikes on her, Anna Gladstone doubled to left center, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Merrideth Spiers’ groundout to take a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers prevented any damage in the Panther first when Jaden Gannan’s screamer was caught by third baseman Merrideth Spiers with two outs.
Worth County got five in the second. Hailey Adwell led off with a single to center. Anna Spainhower forced her at second, but Morgan Beagle singled Spainhower to third and stole. Braidy Hunt singled to right center and went to second on an unsuccessful throw home as Spainhower scored and Aivry Griffin’s double down the right field line scored Beagle and Hunt. Anna Gladstone reached on a grounder that got under third baseman Brynn Teel’s legs and Griffin scored. Anna took second on the throw home and third on an errant cutoff throw. Megan Cassavaugh grounded out to score Gladstone to put the Tigers up 6-0.
Pattonsburg got one back in the third when Weatherby Bailey’s bunt was thrown away by Cassavaugh and Jillian Plymell scored. Worth County got the run back when Anna Gladstone grounded out in the fourth, scoring Griffin to make it 7-1. Jaden Gannan, who started for Pattonsburg on the mound, was hit hard when her pitches were straight and up over the plate, but she was effective when her pitches had a lot of movement.
All hell broke loose in the fourth with two outs and Grace Warner on second for Pattonsburg. Mekenzie Turner walked, and then Worth County couldn’t get out of the inning as Brittani Adams’ pop fly dropped in left and Jillian Plymell singled to load the bases. An errant pickoff throw let in one run, Bailey walked, and then Brynn Teel emptied the bases with a three run double into the left center field gap. Jaden Gannan singled her in to tie it at 7-7.
But then Merrideth Spiers got a scratch hit when Weatherby Bailey knocked down her grounder at short but didn’t have a play. Jill Hardy singled her to second. Hailey Adwell struck out, but Anna Spainhower reached second on third baseman Brynn Teel’s throwing error as both scored. Morgan Beagle singled to center and took second when the cutoff throw got away, scoring Spainhower. Braidy Hunt flied out, but Aivry Griffin got another opposite field hit as she pushed one past first and second to score Beagle.
In the Pattonsburg fifth, first baseman Anna Gladstone made an outstanding play when she somehow came down with Merrideth Spiers’ high throw to save her an error.
Bailey replaced Gannan on the mound and threw hard, but straight and fought the strike zone. She plunked both Merrideth Spiers and Jill Hardy to start the inning. Hailey Adwell grounded into a force at third, but then Anna Spainhower reached on an error when Bailey threw away another potential force to third, scoring Hardy and opening the floodgates, putting Adwell on third and Spainhower on second. Morgan Beagle singled down the right field line to score both and Braidy Hunt walked. They took second and third on a wild pitch, and Aivry Griffin singled them in and stole second.
That brought up Anna Gladstone, and she crushed one so hard that it nearly left the yard despite the wind blowing straight in from center. As it was, left fielder Quincy Crone and center fielder Jillian Plymell collided going after it, and Anna was able to circle the bases for a two run home run.
Teel’s single scored Jillian Plymell to make it 18-8, but at the start of the inning, Morgan Beagle made a running catch of Brittani Adams’ pop fly in foul territory to prevent any further damage.
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