By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
For the handful of seniors on Jasper’s softball team, Wednesday marked the third time in high school they’ve played in a district championship game.
And for the first time, that group hoisted a championship plaque when it was over.
Top-seeded Jasper scored in every inning, including plating seven runs in the fourth, and went on to beat Liberal 15-3 in five innings for the Class 1 District 6 title hosted by the Bulldogs.
“We’ve been here several times before and lost,” Jasper coach David Osborne said. “One of those teams was better than us and the other just came out ahead. Today we came out ahead and we’re pretty fortunate.”
Jasper, 14-9, advances to face Miller in the quarterfinal round on May 17.
The Eagles, who played as the home team on the scoreboard, jumped out to a 5-0 lead and took advantage of seemingly every mistake by Liberal, the second seed.
They scored two runs in the first – both with two outs – and used a walk, error, and double steal to put runners at second and third for Mercadez Scott, who singled to center to score both.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Then, in the second, Abigail Dumm doubled and Livia Dumm and Shiloh Storm each singled in runs, and Storm later scored on a wild pitch.
Liberal, 12-15, made some noise with three runs in the third. Jordan Goodell singled, then Ellaina LaNear reached on an infield error. Both runners ended up scoring on a subsequent throwing error. Kyla Porter added a double to left field and scored when Laney Simpson doubled her in.
But the Bulldogs’ momentum was short lived, with Jasper getting all three runs back in the bottom half of the inning – again with two outs. Emersyn Bass singled and scored on a wild pitch, Abigail Dumm drew a walk and scored on a throwing error during a pick-off attempt, and then Livia Dumm walked and scored on a single by Storm.
Jasper delivered the knockout blow in the fourth, sending 13 batters to the plate and recording four singles and a double. The Eagles also walked three times and had a hit batter in the inning, and they scored twice on throwing errors.
Charissa Spear doubled to center in a pinch-hit at bat to get things started, and later Taylor Hinds drew a walk with the bases loaded to score one run, and Scott was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score another.
When it was over, Jasper had scored seven runs – once again, all with two outs.
“Our hitting was spectacular,” said Grace Osborne, who earned the win. “Our outfielders were amazing today. Honestly just having backup was the biggest thing. I’m so proud of everybody.”
Osborne said the district championship, which is Jasper’s first in over a decade, was possible because “we have a really strong group of girls and we’re all pretty much family. We trust each other a lot.”
But that doesn’t mean she expected to win the title all year long.
“I’m still shocked and in disbelief right now,” she said. “But I am so happy it finally happened.”
“We definitely have a good hitting lineup and some solid fielders,” said Storm, who added that the team had communicated “very well” during the game.
Bass said the Eagles had first talked about the district championship as a goal at the beginning of the first practice of the season.
“We have wanted this since forever,” she said. “We really believed in ourselves. We came out and really wanted it and we hit the ball like we needed to and fielded like we needed to. We really wanted this for our seniors, too.”
And Scott said one of the keys to winning on Wednesday was how Jasper had started the season.
“We didn’t come out expecting to win every game,” she said. “We played a hard schedule knowing we needed to compete to get better. We played hard teams that would make us better and we didn’t always expect to win those games. We just wanted to get better every game. Our coach played a part in that very much.”
