Nobody expected either Worth County or Albany to make the finals of the Albany Tournament, but they both beat higher seeds to make it before Albany beat Worth County in the championship game 11-7 to clinch the title. Worth County beat North Andrew and won a rematch with Princeton before running into the Warriors.
Worth County 14, North Andrew 4
Worth County fell 10-4 to North Andrew Tuesday, September 3rd, but a completely different team took the field in Saturday’s first round game.
North Andrew threatened in their half of the first when Teigan Miller singled down the left field line. A great play by left fielder Addison Gray kept her at first, but Miller took second and third on wild pitches. Gracie Wilmes walked and stole second, putting runners at second and third with one out. But then Tiger pitcher Kristen Tracy got out of trouble by striking out Emma Curran and getting Piper Cook to ground out to Rylee Ruckman at short.
Keira Hardy started off the scoring for the Tigers in the second when she successfully stretched a double into a triple after crushing it to left center and later came home on a wild pitch.
Worth County had trouble with Cardinal pitcher Teigan Miller, who makes a living by getting batters to chase her high pitches. But Worth County started getting much better swings in the third inning when Riley Ridge, who had victimized Princeton with her slap bunts, did so again to start the inning, beating out the third baseman. She stole second and Rylee Ruckman reached on an error. In the first game, it was Worth County making a bunch of errors; but this time, North Andrew was the one making errors. On the next play, Kambree Briner laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line that she beat out. North Andrew proceeded to throw it around. By the time the dust had settled, two Tiger runs had scored to make it 3-0 and Briner was on second. Kristen Tracy had two strikes on her but shot one down the right field line fair as Briner scored to make it 4-0. Audrey Runde singled to left and the ball rolled through the left fielder’s legs as Runde took second and Tracy third. Megan Tracy tripled to right to cap off the five run third and make it 6-0.
But North Andrew is one of those teams that doesn’t give up easily. They broke up a tight game against the Tigers in the first game and they erased a 5-1 deficit against Maryville to beat them earlier. Sure enough, helped by four Tiger errors and a walk, they fought back in this game to make it 6-4 after three.
But unlike the first game, Worth County fought back after their bad inning, getting a double off the wall from Rylee Ruckman and a double from Kristen Tracy to right center to make it 7-4. Audrey Runde beat out an infield hit to second base to move Tracy to third, and Runde stole second. Keira Hardy singled to score two to make it 9-4, stole second, and took third on a wild pitch. Megan Tracy grounded out to score her and make it 10-4.
North Andrew threatened in the fourth, but left fielder Addison Gray, who had let one get through her legs earlier in the inning, ran down Gracie Wilmes’ drive to keep the red shirts off the board.
With two strikes on her, Rylee Ruckman hit a seeing eye single to center field and stole second. Kambree Briner grounded out, but then Kristen Tracy singled to score Ruckman and make it 11-4, Audrey Runde hit another seeing eye single to put runners on first and second, Keira Hardy got a bunt single to load the bases, Megan Tracy laid down a bunt that the pitcher was able to knock down but had no play as Kristen Tracy scored to make it 12-4. Addison Gray’s pop fly single to left center scored two more to make it 14-4. All four runs in the inning came with two out.
North Andrew went 1-2-3 in the fifth as Megan Tracy was able to dig Rylee Ruckman’s throw out of the dirt to save an error and the Tigers were able to win on the ten run rule.
Worth County 5, Princeton 4
Worth County had won handily against the Blue Tigers two days earlier, but Princeton was down two players in that game and a completely different Princeton squad took the field for Saturday’s game. They came back from a big deficit to beat Stanberry in the first game and they went on to have a good tournament, beating Pattonsburg to get third place.
In the Princeton game, Worth County was hitting it hard, but right at people for much of the game. Princeton mounted the first threat in the bottom of the second when Evan Boxley doubled down the right field line and Audrey Kelly and Addison Wyatt walked with one out. But Mikaylee Henke grounded to Kambree Briner at second, who tagged out Wyatt and threw to first to get Henke out for a double play.
With two outs in the third, Rylee Ruckman walked and Kambree Briner was plunked. Kristen Tracy doubled them both home and went to third on a wild pitch. Audrey Runde reached on an error to score Tracy and make it 3-0.
But the momentum swung right back to Princeton after Addie Henke hit one of her many home runs she has had over the years. With Worth County hitting it hard but Princeton making great plays on defense, the Blue Tigers came back to tie in the fourth when Audrey Kelly walked with one out, Addison Wyatt singled to right and they took second and third when the ball got away from Braelyn Fletchall, and another error let in Kelly to make it 3-2. Addie Henke flied out to tie it at 3-3.
When Macey Lewis, playing at second, ran down a tricky pop fly on the third base side of second and Evan Boxley got her second hit of the day to score Riley Clark to make it 4-3, Worth County was on the ropes. With the 90 minute time limit approaching and the fifth being the last inning, they were down to their last three outs.
Kristen Tracy hit a screamer that was snagged by the first baseman for the first out, but Audrey Runde reached on a throw in the dirt to keep Worth County’s hopes alive. She went to second on a wild pitch and took third when Keira Hardy squared up to bunt and nobody was covering third. Keira then tripled off the right field wall to tie it at 4-4 and Megan Tracy’s sac fly put the Tigers back in front 5-4.
Worth County survived a dropped fly ball in the fifth as pitcher Kristen Tracy recovered to strike out Macey Lewis for the third out.
Albany 11, Worth County 7
Worth County started off well, but a completely different Albany team from the one that was no-hit by Northeast Nodaway in summer ball came to play as they got the tournament title.
In the Tiger first, Kambree Briner hit a shot that the shortstop knocked down, but had no play on. Kristen Tracy hit a seeing eye single to left and Audrey Runde’s pop fly dropped in to load the bases. Keira Hardy hit a shot off the first baseman’s glove to score Briner and load the bases. Megan Tracy reached second when Albany threw away a force to make it 3-0 after two runs scored.
But then Albany, with a new coach, showed much better plate discipline, refusing to chase borderline pitches and working deep into the count. The fatigue of having played three games set in as a walk parade let in four Warrior runs in the second. Albany scored one in the third when Makena Moffat singled and Marley Hansel bunted out and Moffat went all the way to third on the play and made it on a close play. Like Worth County, Albany is relying on their speed on the basepaths a lot this year.
Albany scored three more when Kaylee Siddens singled, Kennedi Epperly was plunked, and Alexis Seiter walked. That set up Jayden Hillyard’s two run single. Addison Gray made a great play in center when she made a great catch and doubled Hillyard off. Seiter scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-3, but the momentum was swinging back to the Tigers.
Sure enough, Kambree Briner singled. A pair of forceouts nearly finished the Tigers with time close to expiring, but then Keira Hardy walked and Megan Tracy tripled to score Audrey Runde and Keira Hardy to make it 8-5. Addison Gray reached on a throw in the dirt to score Tracy and Braelyn Fletchall doubled in Gray to make it 8-7. But then the walk parade resumed for Albany, who got another big blow from Hillyard before time expired.
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