Despite striking out eighteen times against sophomore Delanie Freeze, the Stockton Lady Tigers managed to beat the visiting Liberal Lady Bulldogs 6-1 on Monday in the Missouri spring softball state sectionals.
You read that right—Freeze fanned 18 Lady Tiger batters, including 11 of the first 12 outs she recorded—and lost. The difference was the five runs the righthander gave up in the top of the fifth inning.
Liberal (who had last ups via a pregame coin flip) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Callie Cornell singled to right field and came around to score on Haleigh Beckwith’s double to left. The Bulldogs could have extended the rally but Beckwith got picked off third base for a key second out and Tiger hurler Hannah Ewing was able to work out of a bases-loaded jam by inducing a groundout by Jaci Coleman.
Then came Stockton. Freeze had been pitching outstandingly through the first four innings but started the fifth by walking Kennedi Cargill and Liz Fuller. Harlly Gray followed with a single to center to fill the sacks. Cargill scored the tying run on a passed ball during Ewing’s at-bat, which resulted in a strikeout. Taylor Greenlee put the Lady Tigers up for good with a 2-run double to center. After a walk to Aimee Garver and a fanning of Rachel Merrick, Kayla Smith plated two more runs with a double to left.
Greenlee said, “Hitting that, not only for myself but mostly for my team, you watching them get excited and watching them getting confidence… It wasn’t just for me, it was for them too.”
“I don’t know where that came from,” Smith said of her hit. “We practiced Friday, we had to stand on the line and practice that a lot, so I guess that changed my hits from practicing it.”
Stockton added one more run in the seventh as Garver doubled to left, advanced to third on Merrick’s bunt single, and scored as Smith reached on an error.
Smith, a sophomore first baseman, added to her heroics in the bottom of the seventh as she snagged a low liner from Brooke Bearden and a foul popup from Kaylee Daniels. Coleman lined out to Gray at shortstop to end the ballgame.
“Well, we practice a lot of foul balls so that really paid off,” Smith said. “Yeah, I caught it [the Bearden liner] and fell on my butt.”
Ewing allowed just five hits and a walk while fanning ten in the victory.
“I knew that we were going to either be in it or out of it and we just decided to play well,” said the senior lefty. “We just have to keep each other up. We kept each other up even when it didn’t look good.”
Liberal coach Brandi Goodell said this wasn’t the first time a great performance by Freeze did not result in victory.
“It’s crazy, crazy,” Goodell said. “And unfortunately that’s happened a few times to her over the last few years. Just strikeout, strikeout, and then a couple of walks hurt us. Defensively we had some struggles at times too but credit them [Stockton]. They got some timely hitting and strung some together too. That fifth inning and you take away that [second] inning where we get bases loaded and get picked off third, you know, cost ourselves a couple of runs.”
The Lady Tigers move on to the quarterfinals on Thursday where they await the winner of Mt. Vernon and Purdy. The Mountaineers and Eagles had their game postponed by weather.
Stockton 000 050 1—6 7 2
Liberal 010 000 0—1 5 2
Hannah Ewing and Taylor Greenlee; Delanie Freeze and Brooke Bearden
Hits: Stockton—Harlly Gray 2 (3B), Taylor Greenlee 2 (2B), Aimee Garver, Kayla Smith 2 (2B). Liberal—Callie Cornell 2 (2B), Haleigh Beckwith 2 (2B), Haley Page.
