By Don Eskins & Chris Parker
Stoutland had one goal coming into Wednesday’s sectional game: get back home for a quarterfinal matchup.
“I told the girls ‘we’re not taking your senior banners down because we are coming home Saturday to play. They said ‘are you sure’ and I said ‘yes we are coming back Saturday to play’,” Stoutland head coach Rob Selander said.
Mission accomplished.
Stoutland rolled over the Norwood 7-1 advance to the Class 1 state quarterfinals.
The Tigers (17-3-1), after being held scoreless over the first two innings of play, erupted for two runs in the third, one in the fifth and four in the sixth to grab the 7-1 victory.
“We always say keep fighting and scratching away runs and eventually we will break it open and that is what we did tonight,” Selander said.
In the circle for the win was Stoutland’s Bre Rea Stein. She gave up just five hits with 12 strikeouts over seven innings.
Norwood had its chances with runners on base, but Stein left many of the Lady Pirates stranded.
“We left a lot of runners on base tonight,” said Norwood head coach Lori Drake. “But we just couldn’t pick up a hit when we needed it. But we have to give the Tigers a lot of credit for that, they played extremely well tonight, especially on the mound.”
This is the furthest Stoutland has been in the state playoffs since 1999.
“We are in uncharted territory right now and we are hungry for more. We are a solid team and we are not finished yet,” Selander said. “It is just a magical team. We say it all the time. You have a couple people on the team and they are the characters. I have a whole 21 people on the team that are characters. It is a happy, fun time every time we play. The girls are just thankful for the opportunity every single game.”
Norwood says good-bye to a strong senior group that has seen a lot of success.
“Our kids have had a lot of success,” she said. “Josie (Sullivan) and Payton (Drake), having been varsity starters for the past three years, have won two conference titles, two district titles and one very special trip to the final four last year. They’ve done very well and I’m proud of every one of them.”
Stoutland’s season continues on Saturday at home against Weaubleau with a trip to the Class 1 Final Four on the line. The Lady Tigers beat Weaubleau 8-0 in their regular season matchup.
