By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
A 10-1 win over visiting Mt. Vernon on Thursday was just the latest in a string of dominant wins for the Purdy softball team.
But head coach Lori Videmschek still had plenty to say to her 16-1 Eagles after the game, especially after the team loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth inning and failed to score.
“I was a little upset the way we ended that sixth inning,” she said. “With no outs and the bases loaded we’ve got to have the mentality to be able to put the ball in play hard somewhere and get a fly ball. Situational hitting we work on and we talk about all the time and we’ve got to get better at situational hitting, especially in that inning.”
The stranded runners didn’t matter on the scoreboard – not after the Eagles recorded eight hits and five walks and with senior Lauren Schallert pitching another gem on the mound.
Schallert scattered five hits and allowed just one earned run in seven innings while striking out 16 and walking none. She helped her cause at the plate, too, belting a home run into the wind over the left field wall on the first pitch she saw in the fifth inning. That made it a 6-0 game.
“Defensively we did well,” Videmschek said. “Lauren threw a good game today and I thought we hit the ball hard, exceptionally hard. It’s not like we didn’t hit the ball hard, we hit it right at them and we made some good defensive plays when we had to.”
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Schallert struck out the side after allowing a leadoff single in the second and struck out three more in the third. She worked around a 1-out double in the fourth and a 2-out double in the fifth; Mt. Vernon right fielder Allison Burk stole third right after, posing the Mountaineers’ biggest scoring threat to that point.
Mt. Vernon (8-3) broke the shutout in the sixth with two outs when Josey McChesney singled and scored on a double by Harley Daniels. That made it an 8-1 game.
Purdy scored in five of the six innings it batted. Kinsley Mattingly walked and scored in the first on a double down the third-base line by Schallert. Jessi Hoppes reached on an error in the first, stole second and later scored on a wild pitch.
The Eagles plated three in the third. Mattingly walked and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Jaqualyn Fenski. Schallert drew an intentional walk, then Bayleigh Robbins doubled to deep center. Robyn Schad drove in another run with a groundout, and a third run scored when Hoppes reached on a dropped pop fly.
Three more runs crossed in the fifth. Schallert led off with the home run, Robbins walked and Schad then smacked a ball over the left field fence. The home plate umpire ruled it foul – barely – but later apologized to Videmschek and said it was a fair ball. Schad instead singled to center. Hoppes drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Annabelle Bowman forced in another run with a short pop fly.
Fenske reached on an infield error to open the bottom of the sixth. Pinch runner Rylee Stanford stole second and scored on a single by Schallert to make it 9-1. Robbins singled, Schad walked to load the bases and Hoppes was hit by a pitch to force in another run.
But then, with the bases loaded and no outs, the Eagles hit three-straight ground balls that turned into outs, drawing Videmschek’s ire.
“We did some things well, we’ve just got to keep working on things and getting better,” she said.
McChesney and Daniels each collected two hits for Mt. Vernon. Head coach Matt Schubert was pleased his team forced Schallert to throw 109 pitches in the effort.
“She’s really good, does a good job of hitting spots and making it tough on the hitters but I thought our hitters did a really good job,” he said. “I think everybody had a foul ball or two, some really good at bats as well, fouling some pitches off and making her work and throw seven, eight, nine pitches at a time.”
The Mountaineers were charged with four errors, though, and Schubert said they need to make the simple plays.
“We had a couple simple plays today we just didn’t make and that hurt us early,” he said. “They’re a good team and they’ve got some good hitters. They were able to square up a few balls. We’ve got four conference games coming up this weekend so Hadley Cornell was our number two pitcher and I said this is your game, you’re going to have to pitch no matter what. I thought she did a good job. Only got in trouble a couple times when she missed in the middle of the plate.”
Schallert led Purdy with a 3-for-3 day at the plate. Robbins was 2-for-3.
