The Shamrocks have not lost an HDC Tournament since 2010, when Newtown-Harris was at the top of the heap, Grundy County knocked the Shamrocks out of the tournament in the semifinal round, and Worth County, with just three wins up to that point, exited them out of districts after being crushed 16-3 at Albany earlier that year.
Mercer, which didn’t even finish the season last year following a 23-0 drubbing by Princeton and being hammered in the Jamboree, came out looking like a completely different team this year. They played through another 0-3 preseason tournament and survived several blowout losses to build a 6-4 record coming into Wednesday’s game.
North Harrison struck the first blow in the first when Jayliegh Robins tripled off the left field wall and came home on a wild pitch. But then it became apparent that Mercer had come to play when their fielders snagged hard shots in the outfield in the second from Ashlynn Gilpatrick and Trendi Johnson. They employed a shift, where all three of their outfielders were bunched together, giving a big gap in right field. The shift worked for a while, but then North Harrison burned it twice in the sixth inning during their winning rally.
Shamrock pitcher Ashlynn Gilpatrick retired the first seven batters, but then walked Savannah Martin in the third with one out. Jazmine Martin popped out to Emma Craig behind the plate as she cradled the ball against her chest to make the play. But then Rainey Michael singled, Katie Hill walked, and Jordan Coon doubled into the right center field gap to empty the bases and put Mercer in front. It might have been worse, but Hunter Stevens snapped Aubrey Wilson’s screamer at first base to rob her of extra bases and keep North Harrison’s deficit at 3-1.
But then Jayliegh Robins came up, and the Cardinals had to play her straight up, since she is left handed and hits it all over the field. She stretched a single into a double, stole third safely, and came home on a throwing error by Coon to make it 3-2. Carly Rinehart came up and squibbed one down the third base line, beat it out, and took third on third baseman Martin’s throwing error. Emma Craig hit it hard, but right into the teeth of the Mercer shift, but it was good enough to bring the run home to tie it at 3-3. Rainey Fordyce hit a pop fly that dropped in front of the left fielder, as the Mercer players were very deep, back to the wall. She alertly stretched it into a double as she saw nobody was covering second. She came home on Kami Gibson’s single to right center. Ashlynn Gilpatrick singled Kami Gibson to third and Trendi Johnson beat the shift as she singled to right to bring home Gibson. Katelyn Briggs grounded out to score Amber Wilson (running for Gilpatrick) to put North Harrison in front 6-3.
Neither side scored in the fourth, but in the fifth, the rain started to come down; however, the green shirts thrived in the wet conditions. Rainey Fordyce crushed one, but right into the teeth of the shift for the first out. But then Kami Gibson singled, and with two strikes on Ashlynn Gilpatrick, recognized a change and broke for second. Shortstop Aubrey Wilson broke to cover, and Ashlynn put an unorthodox swing on it and crushed it through the vacated hole to put her on first and Gibson on third. That and the next play opened up the floodgates for the Shamrocks as the rain began pouring down harder. With Trendi Johnson batting and Gilpatrick running on a first and third situation, Mercer uncorked a wild pitch, Gibson scored on a close play, and Gilpatrick went first to third and made it on another close play to make it 7-3.
Trendi Johnson singled to center to score Wilson (running for Gilpatrick), Katelyn Briggs walked, Kylie Pottorff walked, but Jayliegh Robins singled to score one. Carly Rinehart singled to left and took second when the cutoff got away as two more scored to make it 11-3.
Hunter Stevens was a wall at first as she knocked down another screamer that would have been extra bases and stepped on first in the Cardinal sixth.
In the bottom of the frame, with the the rain pounding in full force on the field, Rainey Fordyce beat the shift with a screamer in the right field gap; the right fielder tried for a diving catch and just missed as Fordyce made it with a double. Kami Gibson took ball four on a pitch in the dirt that got away as Fordyce took third. Instead of a normal trot down to first, Gibson burst out of the batter's box on a dead sprint and made it all the way to second on the play, showing the kind of aggressive baserunning that Coach Brandon Craig had looked for all year. Ashlynn Gilpatrick hit a screamer down the right field line to beat the shift again as the final two runs scored, just before the men in blue would have halted play.
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