An incredible sixth inning fueled the Lady Mountaineers’ come-from-behind victory to knock off Purdy 7-6 in the state softball sectional round on Tuesday.
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Despite playing the game in Purdy, Mount Vernon won the coin-toss and was the home team on the scoreboard. Purdy did not seem to be bothered by that fact, though. They jumped ahead 4-1 by the middle of the fifth inning, which felt like a nice cushion at the time. Purdy made a pitching change and replaced Breanna Keeler with relief pitcher Hallie Henderson. Henderson tossed a scoreless bottom half of the fifth, but Mount Vernon got to the Lady Eagles in the sixth inning.
“That’s something that Hallie has been coming in and doing all year,” said Purdy head coach Lori Videmschek. “In that fourth inning, [Keeler] was getting behind in her counts so we thought we would bring in a fresh one, Hallie, and hit her spots… it’s something that didn’t happen.”
Whitney Wiehe started the bottom of the sixth with a walk, followed by two bunt singles from Callie Christiansen and Kendra Foulk to load the bases with no outs. That set the table for sophomore McKenna Hagerman. She ripped a double and drove in two runs. Two batters later, Alane Cordray grounded into a fielder’s choice but drove in another run to tie the game at 4-4.
Now with runners on second and third with one out, Mount Vernon was just getting the rally started. Kaitlyn Foulk delivered a two-RBI line drive double into left field in the very next at-bat to put the Lady Mountaineers ahead 6-4. This prompted Purdy to bring Keeler back into the game to stop the bleeding. Hailea Schubert added another run with an RBI single to score Foulk to cap off a six-run sixth inning.
“We knew [Purdy] would start with Keeler and then bring in the Henderson girl,” Mount Vernon head coach Matt Schubert said. “They’re both very good and we’ve had success against both of them… I knew that if we just kept at it and kept at it, then we would eventually have an opportunity.”
They took advantage of their opportunity, and they would need every single run they got in the sixth.
Purdy started a rally of their own in the top of the seventh. With two outs, junior Rion Boyd drove in two runs and made it to third on a throwing error, putting the tying run on third base. But Lady Mountaineer senior pitcher Maddie Brown did not let the game get away. She forced a bloop pop out to shallow right center field to complete the game she started and secure the win for her squad.
“They definitely can hit,” said Brown of the Lady Eagles. “I was mainly trying to think about when they hit last and what they hit, where they hit it and trying to pitch around that to make them hit the opposite way or to jam them inside or something. My curve ball was working really well today, so I was throwing that a lot to them and they couldn’t get ahold of it, so it was making them pop up or hit ground balls.”
“Wow is all I can say,” said Schubert. “It was up and down, up and down. And I told them, I said, ‘you know what, there’s not a better team we’re going to face than what we just faced right there.’ And we continue to play and be invested like we have been. The last three and a half weeks have been incredible for these girls… We know who the good teams are, we know what they have and what they’re capable of, and we know that we’re right there with them. So it comes down to you get a few breaks here, a good at-bat, and we got a couple today and it allowed us to get past Purdy.”
Purdy finishes their tremendous season at 25-3, with two of their losses coming to the Lady Mountaineers. Last spring season, Purdy faced off with Stockton in the quarterfinal round. They were looking forward to a rematch with the Lady Tigers this year, but instead it will be Mount Vernon with a shot to play Stockton. The winner of that game will punch their ticket to the Final Four at Killian Softball Complex in Springfield.
Mount Vernon shut out Stockton 11-0 on Apr. 21 in their only meeting this year. They will prepare to face Stockton again on Thursday, May 12 with much higher stakes.
“I knew from the minute I stepped on the field my freshman year that we could do it and that we have the talent,” the senior Brown said. “Our class has been playing together for a long time. So we have great team chemistry and it works very well together. We knew we could do it. We’ve had a few rough patches here and there, but definitely very excited and ready to keep playing.”
Purdy 0 – 1 – 0 – 1 – 2 – 0 – 2 –– 6
Mount Vernon 1 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 6 – x –– 7
