Gilman City extended its school record with its 16th win Thursday and held off a dangerous Pattonsburg squad 6-3 to advance in district play to face Albany. In the first meeting between the teams, Pattonsburg had crushed the Hawks, but Gilman City kept their errors to a minimum this time and kept mistakes from snowballing into big innings.
After making no errors until the game was decided the first time, Pattonsburg made two in the first inning this time. Khloey Sperry apparently struck out, but the ball got away from catcher Isabella Burger and she reached first safely. Avery Gregg hit a pop fly in no-man’s land between the mound and shortstop and it dropped in for a base hit as Sperry took second. Tenley Griffith popped out. Alli Burke struck out, but on the play, Sperry stole third and Gregg second. Kayleece Puls hit a towering drive into the lights in left field. Claire Christensen lost it in the lights and it dropped in as two runs scored and the Hawks took a lead they would not relinquish.
Isabella Burger answered in the bottom of the first with a blast to center field for a home run. It was her third career home run.
Cheyenne Miller caught Caitlynn Chalfant’s line drive in the second and Kaitlyn Estes, who had carried Pattonsburg so often with her bat, did so with her glove as she made a diving grab of Ellie Smith’s pop fly to keep the Hawks off the board.
Rosalynn Cameron hit a drive into the gap in right-center, but Avery Gregg made a running catch to take extra bases away in the Panther second.
With two outs, Kayleece Puls hit the first of two big blows as she crushed a double into the left-center field gap. Parker Crabtree hit a pop fly over third base that dropped in for a base hit; Puls, off on contact with two outs, scored. Caitlynn Chalfant walked and Emily Chalfant hit a sinking line drive to the backhand side of Cheyenne Miller at second that dropped in fair for a double as Crabtree scored to make it 4-1.
Hawk pitcher Tenley Griffith was missing a lot with her outside pitches, but got a lot of strikeouts as Pattonsburg was chasing her high heat. Cheyenne Miller nearly had a base hit as her pop fly behind first dropped in just foul. Jayden Goble roped one into the right-center field cap, but once again, Avery Gregg ran it down for an out.
With one out in the fifth, Rosalynn Cameron caught hold of a high pitch and singled to right-center. Cheyenne Miller forced her at second, but Jayden Goble hit a fly ball that left fielder Hailey McClure couldn’t get to. It caromed off her knee brace and rolled all the way into right field as Goble reached third and Miller scored to make it 4-2.
It looked like the Panthers would get a big inning in the sixth after Isabelle Burger got jammed and hit a pop fly just fair over Parker Crabtree’s head at second. Kaitlyn Estes beat out a grounder into the hole at short, and Emsleigh McCrary hit a high chopper that somehow found its way into center for another base hit. Avery Gregg made a great stop to keep a run from scoring.
With the bases loaded and nobody out, Vanessa Weigand struck out chasing Tenley Griffith’s high heat, as did Kara Bernardino. Six out of Griffith’s seven strikeouts were from batters chasing her high heat. Rosalynn Cameron hit a pop fly that looked like it would drop in no-man’s land, but Avery Gregg made a running catch behind second to get the Hawks out of the inning with no damage done.
With one out in the Hawk seventh, Alli Burke caught hold of a high and outside pitch from Addie Iddings and crushed one into right field. Kara Bernardino, playing in her last softball game as a Panther, made a great play to hold Burke to a single. Kayleece Puls got her second big blow, hitting a triple to left field as Burke scored. The throw home got away and Puls came in to score as well, making it 6-2.
In the Panther seventh, Cheyenne Miller hit a hot shot off Tenley Griffith’s glove that nearly got away from her, but she recovered in time to get her on a close play. Jayden Goble beat out Kayleece Puls’ throw from short and reached second when the throw got into the dugout. Addie Iddings grounded out to advance Goble to third. Isabelle Burger walked to bring up the tying run to the plate in Kaitlyn Estes. She crushed one to the right field wall, but Ellie Smith made a great play to get it in and Estes was held to a single as Burger took second. Emsleigh McCrary went after the first pitch, but popped it out to Caitlynn Chalfant in foul territory for the final out.
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