Northeast Nodaway's softball girls fell into a hitting slump and dropped their first game of the season 5-0 against King City. They went 14 innings without a run before finally breaking out of it Thursday in the third and proceeded to get the 8-1 win over Albany for their third win of the season. With the team mired in a hitting slump, pitcher Hadley DeFreece carried the team on her shoulders against Albany, striking out 16 Warrior batters without walking or hitting a batter. Finally, the Bluejays used a two out rally to break through in the third when Bailey Busby hit a shot off Warrior pitcher Addisyn Crawford to shortstop Abigail Troncin, who had no play on it. She stole second and then DeFreece helped herself out with a single to left to put the Bluejays on the board first at 1-0.
The Warriors showed they are a dangerous hitting squad, as they were coming off back to back wins over Stanberry in which they scored 17 and 10 runs. But DeFreece struck out five Warriors in a row from the first to the third inning, and catcher Baylie Busby helped her with an outstanding defensive play, catching Tatum Peterson's foul ball against the fence. That meant that the bases were empty for Claire Manring's single with two outs in the inning, and Cory Worrell was called out on strikes to end it.
In the Bluejay fourth, Makenzie Pride singled to center, but Sasha Deardorff, seeing a pitch in the dirt, took off for second but was erased stealing. Troncin beat out a bunt single in the Warrior fourth to put the tying run on board, but DeFreece continued to carry the team on her shoulders, striking out Jordyn Sterkis, a promising freshman who earned her way into the starting lineup, along with Brea Jensen. That got her to ten strikeouts, and it was only the end of four.
The bottom of the order came through for Northeast as Lauren McIntyre and Lindsey Jackson had back to back singles to start the fifth. Baylie Busby forced Jackson at second, but she stole second to set up runners at second and third. Hadley DeFreece reached on Troncin's bobble to score McIntyre and put runners on first and second. They advanced on a wild pitch, and Jaden Atkins flied out to score Busby and make it 3-0.
DeFreece struck out the side in the Warrior fifth to make it five in a row again. With one out in the Bluejay sixth, they struck again as Merrideth Adwell singled to center. Ruby Wilmes doubled down the right field line, just out of the reach of Keylee Siddens, as Adwell, who held up to make sure the ball wasn't caught, took third. Lauren McIntyre reached on a fielder's choice as Albany threw home with it, but Adwell, who was not forced to run, scrambled safely back to third. Lindsey Jackson grounded out to score Adwell and put runners on second and third. Baylie Busby reached on an error as Troncin's throw to first was in the dirt and two more runs scored. Hadley DeFreece singled past Troncin into left, Busby tried to go first to third despite the ball being hit to left field, and scored when the Warriors threw it away trying to get her out to make it 7-0.
Albany finally got on the board in the sixth when Cory Worrell tripled off the wall in center, 250 feet away, and came home on Addisyn Crawford's groundout. But DeFreece, whose previous career high was 13 against Stewartsville/Osborn earlier in the ear, fanned Troncin for a new career high. Northeast got the run back in the seventh when Jill Boswell hit a fly ball over Alexis Seiter's head in left. She leaped, but couldn't come up with it as Boswell got a triple, a carbon copy of her game-winning hit against North Harrison last year. Makenzie Pride singled to bring her home. Brea Jensen got a one out double in the Warrior seventh, but DeFreece struck out the last two batters to get the win.
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