Worth County erupted early and often to claim the North Harrison Tournament crown, run-ruling Green City 17-2 in three innings. The Gophers got off to a strong start to the season, getting ranked as high as third in the polls at one point. As of Saturday, they were still ranked tied for 10th with Platte Valley, with only three losses so far. Last year, on the same field, Worth County came into a similar contest with Braymer, proceeded to make five errors in two innings, and was run ruled. But this time, the exact opposite happened as they played errorless ball, timed and crushed the ball at will, and cruised to the three inning victory.
Worth County has been up and down all year, and the outcome has depended on which team has shown up to play. They were coming off an 11 inning loss to Albany and a 9-0 loss to South Harrison, in which they had baserunners galore, but couldn't score them. After their big eruption in the seventh to floor North Harrison 14-5, the Tigers had a choice between letting down against the ranked Gophers or continuing their momentum from the previous game.
The Tigers worked around Payton Pialet's bunt single in the first as Steele caught a pop fly and catcher Autumn Cousatte grabbed a ball in front of the plate and tagged out Lily Helton to end the threat. All of a sudden, Cousatte hit a slow roller down the third base line that went for a hit, and she stretched it into a double. That sparked the whole team and they could do no wrong, while Green City, which showed the rust from only having played one game in the last 12 days, could do no right. A dropped fly ball put Brooklyn Richardson on second and Cousatte on third, Kynah Steele singled down the right field line and took second on the unsuccessful throw home, and Hailey Adwell doubled off the left field wall to score Steele and took third on a wild pitch. The next two Tiger batters struck out, but Brylee Rush doubled over the left fielder's head to score Adwell to make it 4-0.
Claire Gordon reached on a scratch hit in the second for Green City, but the next two batters struck out as pitcher Brooklyn Richardson battened down the hatches. Two straight Gopher errors put Brooklyn Richardson and Autumn Cousatte on first and second and they pulled off a successful double steal. The throw got away, and Cousatte scored. Kynah Steele singled home Richardson, stole second and third, and came home on Kara Staton's single. Brylee Rush reached on an error to score as Lanie Cousatte scored to make it 8-0.
The Gophers showed flashes of the form that propelled them into the rankings in the third; they have averaged 7.5 runs per game this year. Meranda Lewis tripled to the left field corner. Payton Pialet popped out to Lanie Cousatte, but Paige Pialet reached on a fielder's choice as third baseman Kara Staton tried to tag out Meranda Lewis, who was off the bag at third, but she scrambled back safely. Pialet stole second. Lily Helton struck out, but Jaryn Hatcher singled both runs home. It would have been worse, but second baseman Lanie Cousatte ran down Kadance Kin's pop fly behind first to end the inning.
Worth County has had trouble protecting big leads this year, but this was not the case in either of their games Saturday. Rylee Ruckman reached on an error, and then Autumn Cousatte refused to go down on strikes, drawing a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Ruckman stole third and then Cousatte stole second. Brooklyn Richardson singled to center and took second as it got away. Kynah Steele reached on an error as another fly ball got away as Richardson scored. Hailey Adwell's sac fly scored Steele. Kara Staton singled. Ali Brown forced Riley Ridge (running for Staton) at second, but then Brylee Rush's shot off the pitcher's glove went for a scratch hit and put runners on first and second. ZeeAnna Gladstone reached on an error as she took first, Rush third, and Brown scored. Ruckman and Cousatte got hits, the Gophers continued to pile up the errors, and finally, Kynah Steele ended it all with a three run shot to dead center which went 240 feet that ended it.
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