Northeast Nodaway bounced back from their worst loss of the last three years, an 11-0 loss to Platte Valley, to beat Albany 8-3 Wednesday night. Part of it was Platte Valley showing why they are one of the top hitting teams in the area, and part of it was self-inflicted, with seven Bluejay errors fueling the blue and red shirts. But there was no time for the Bluejays to feel sorry for themselves, as they had to turn around and play another game the next night. This time, they still some mistakes and killed a couple of rallies with baserunning mistakes. But they overcame them to turn back the Warriors as Hadley DeFreece struck out 15 Warrior batters.
The focus was on neutralizing the top two Warrior batters in the lineup in Abbi Troncin, back from an ankle injury that kept her out of much of basketball and track last season, and Addisyn Crawford. They got Troncin out to start the first, but it looked like another long night after Crawford yanked one out of the yard the night after two Platte Valley batters went deep.
The Bluejays could only muster two hits against Platte Valley the night before. It looked like a first inning rally would fizzle out after Blair Nelson reached on an error and Hadley DeFreece walked. Jill Boswell flied out and Hailey Yost struck out. But then Brianna Meyer doubled off the wall in left center and scored both runners to put NEN up 2-1. That hit sparked the whole team, which suddenly came out of a collective hitting slump.
But Troncin carried the green shirts the next stretch, retiring a pair of Bluejays on a couple of hard hit balls to short, and crushing a triple to left and scoring on a wild pitch in the third to tie it at 2-2. That sort of thing could have snowballed with Crawford coming up, but Hadley DeFreece struck out Crawford and Makena Moffat to get out of the inning.
DeFreece then helped herself out in the third with a perfect bunt which the Warriors had no play on. Jill Boswell popped out, but Hailey Yost narrowly missed a home run and hit a ground rule double to right center. Brianna Meyer hit a fly ball to right that was dropped as DeFreece scored and Yost took third as Meyer reached first. Consecutive singles by Lindsey Jackson and Makenzie Pride plated two more runs and the Bluejays led 5-2.
Jackson wandered too far off second and was out in a rundown to end the third, but she atoned for that in the Warrior fourth, stepping up and making a catch in center. The Bluejays made an error in the inning, but then DeFreece struck out the next two Warrior batters to get out of the inning. The pattern repeated itself the rest of the game; every time the Bluejays made a mistake on the basepaths or in the field, Hadley DeFreece would take charge and get a strikeout to get the Bluejays back on track.
Three Warrior errors in the fifth led to two more Bluejay runs to make it 7-2. After three NEN errors in the Warrior sixth made it 7-3, Hadley DeFreece struck out the final Warrior batter to get the Bluejays out of the inning. Northeast got the run back in their half when Jill Boswell, who had been frustrated with popping out twice, finally caught hold of one and crushed a triple off the wall in left, similar to her walkoff hit against North Harrison two years ago. Hailey Yost grounded out to Troncin to get her home and regain the run. Hadley DeFreece retired the side in the seventh, with Mylee Wilmes making two plays at second and Brianna Meyer making one at third.
With the Stanberry game Thursday canceled and no JV game for the night, the Bluejays lingered around the ballpark, hungry for more and not wanting to go home. The youth and inexperience was still there; for instance, it took them a moment to realize they had won after Wilmes got the final out. But the hunger will take them a long ways if they keep it up.
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