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By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
West Plains needed five tries to finally advance past the district tournament.
It took only one to reach the quarterfinals.
The Lady Zizzers jumped out to an early lead, and then held off a late Monett rally to win 6-4 and advance to the Class 3 state quarterfinals for the first time in school history.
Abbey Gann turned in an absolutely gritty performance in the circle for West Plains. The junior ace finished with 9 strikeouts on a breezy, chilly afternoon, but the outing was far from easy.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
After a pair of routine innings, the West Plains hurler started to struggle with control issues.
“My two-seam worked for about the first half of the game, and then it started kind of getting out of control,” Gann said.
Seven walks contributed to a series of pressure-packed innings for the Lady Zizzers and allowed the Lady Cubs repeated scoring opportunities.
A pair of runners in the third with one out.
Bases loaded with one out in the fourth.
Runners at second and third in the sixth with no outs.
On three separate occasions, the Lady Zizzers flirted with disaster and each time, Gann somehow pitched herself out of trouble.
Each of Monett’s scoring opportunities were vaporized by back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
“For most people, it’s probably easy to freak out,” Gann said. “But I feel with my experience and my mentality, I’ve been through it enough times that I’ve been able to settle myself down and get through it. I have to be able to trust my defense, and I know they have my back, so it makes is ten times easier.”
For West Plains head coach Don Long, Thursday’s game wasn’t the first time he’d seen his ace work out of a jam.
“She’s done that all year,” Long said with a chuckle. “I want to choke her sometimes, but she always finds a way to get out.”
West Plains wasted little time getting on the board with a pair of runs in the first, followed by two more in the third and a final pair in the seventh. A triple from Kasey Bonham drove in Gann for the first run of the game, and then Hadley Taylor plated Bonham moments later.
Alyssa Young drove in a pair of runs in the third, and then Gann helped out her own cause in the seventh.
An error brought in Smith for a 6-0 lead and put West Plains one-half inning from the quarterfinal round.
Unfortunately for the Lady Zizzers, Monett wasn’t quite ready to call it a day.
In the bottom of the seventh, Gann’s control issues once again surfaced and, once again, another pressure situation was created after three-straight walks loaded the bases with just a single out on the board.
While Gann’s sorcery helped her escape the earlier jams, Monett’s Kelli McCallister had other plans.
McCallister ripped a double into center to clear the bases and put the Lady Cubs within striking distance at 6-3.
One batter later, Monett cut the West Plains lead to two, when McCallister stole third and scored on Josie Allcock’s sacrifice fly.
Monett would get no closer, however, as the final out of the inning flew out to left and into Taylor’s glove.
Coach Long praised his team’s resilient nature and ability to perform on the biggest of stages.
“These kids are battlers,” Long said.” They just keep fighting and fighting, and they think they can win. That’s a big part of it right there.”
For Monett and head coach Ty Goetz,
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Goetz said. “With only one senior, I can’t say anybody really expected us to be here other than the 14 of us. We did it though and got back to the sectional game. The last one’s always hard. Love this bunch, and it was a blast to coach for sure.”
Haley Williams, the Big 8 Conference Player of the Year, finished her stellar career at Monett with 4 strikeouts, 5 hits and 3 earned runs.
Next up for (23-6) West Plains is a Saturday quarterfinal matchup with Sullivan (20-10) at home.
