The Class 3 Cassville Wildcats had one of the toughest draws in pool play for this weekend's Springfield Invitational Tournament, which is essentially the premier softball tournament of the fall season. With Friday games scheduled against Class 4 Republic (14-3) and Class 3 West Plains (8-3), salvaging a split would have been nice.
Instead, the Wildcats went 2-0 against the two, which happen to be ranked No. 2 (Republic) and No. 12 (West Plains) in my power rankings. Cassville made their debut in those rankings this week at No. 14 and proved to not only be worthy of that spot, but maybe of even more.
CASSVILLE VS. REPUBLIC PHOTO GALLERY
Cassville faced the best pitcher in the region against Republic in Rachel Rook, who was coming off back-to-back no-hitters. But behind the arm of Josie Lone, the Wildcats battled the Tigers to a 1-1 tie through seven to force extras. Invitational tournament extra innings are played under international tiebreaker rules, which begin innings with a runner on second with no outs. After Republic rallied for a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning, this happened:
Heading to the bottom of 8: Republic 3, Cassville 1. Cassville starts with a runner on 2nd needing to score at least 2 off Rachel Rook
— Ozarks Sports Zone (@OzarksOzone) September 23, 2016
Then this:
Cassville quickly loads the bases with no outs
— Ozarks Sports Zone (@OzarksOzone) September 23, 2016
And finally, this:
Lauren Turner hits a walk-off grand slam & Cassville beats Republic 5-3. Turner fouled off 4 pitches with 2 strikes before getting her pitch
— Ozarks Sports Zone (@OzarksOzone) September 23, 2016
Can't ask for a better bat to have in that situation. The homer was Turner's third of the season and she was batting .593 coming into the game.
That momentum clearly carried over to Game 2 against West Plains. Ashley Ray hit a two-run shot (her first career home run, and a senior too!) to give Cassville an early lead. Trinity Ewing would hit her first career home run in the sixth inning to give Cassville a three-run cushion and a 5-3 win.
Not surprisingly, the team was pretty hyped this afternoon:
That's right we're lit!ð¥ð¥ð¥ https://t.co/lx1HZuHDW2
— Josie Lone (@Josie_Lone) September 23, 2016
That's right! pic.twitter.com/oKO1wVImbJ
— Trinity Lynn Ewing (@TrinitysLyfee) September 23, 2016
ðð pic.twitter.com/AE9fA9W7T9
— Trinity Lynn Ewing (@TrinitysLyfee) September 23, 2016
The Wildcats are riding an eight-game win streak and the incredibly hot left arm of starting pitcher Josie Lone, who was 4-0 with a 0.24 ERA in the four starts heading into this tournament. Lone started both games on Friday.
We'll see if this momentum can carry over to the elimination rounds on Saturday.
