By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
After finishing as the Class 1 runner up last season, Jasper’s softball team took a step towards taking care of some unfinished business on Wednesday evening.
The Eagles plated seven runs in the first two innings and held visiting Liberal scoreless for the final six frames to earn a 7-3 win in the Class 1 District 6 championship at Jasper.
The Eagles, 21-12, avenged a 6-3 loss to the Bulldogs in conference play and are now set for a quarterfinal rematch with Miller on May 16. Jasper blanked the Cardinals 10-0 in last year’s quarterfinal round.
“I feel like we did great,” said Jasper pitcher Grace Osborne. “We’re a team that knows how to win and that’s really all it is. We’ve been here before and that made a world of difference. We came out swinging and I had good defense.”
Jasper’s offense gave Osborne a big cushion early on Wednesday. Playing as the visitors on the scoreboard, the Eagles loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first and then Haylee Turner cleared them with a triple to deep center field.
Liberal answered with three runs in the bottom of the first – Kyla Porter drew a bases loaded walk and Laney Simpson singled in two more runs – but Jasper’s offense struck again in the second.
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Alivea Roberts led off the second by getting hit by a pitch and Livia Dumm drew a two-out walk. Then Emersyn Bass hit a grounder to third that scored a run when the throw home wasn’t in time. Gabriella Haddock followed by getting hit by a pitch to load the bases for Taylor Hinds, who doubled to center to make it a 7-3 game.
After that, Osborne and the Jasper defense took over.
Osborne struck out nine and allowed just two hits in her seven innings. She retired Liberal in order in the second and Jasper turned a double play to end the third. The Bulldogs put two on in the fourth before Osborne got a strikeout to end the inning, and she worked around a leadoff walk in the fifth.
Liberal did bring the tying run to the plate in the seventh after Bailey Couch (single), Jordan Goodell (walk) and Ellaina LaNear (single) loaded the bases with nobody out. Osborne coaxed Kyla Porter into a pop out, and then Kale Hatfield hit a ball hard to second that the Eagles turned into a double play to end it.
“I just knew everyone was there to back me up,” Osborne said. “I had faith in my catcher, of course. We just have a great team.”
“Our defense really backed Grace up tonight,” said Livia Dumm, the team’s catcher. “Our outfield did amazing tonight, they did outstanding. The double plays were phenomenal and Grace’s pitching through every inning, she just did amazing.”
“Coming out strong really helped us get our motivation up but throughout the whole game we kept a level head and made sure to work together as a team,” Dumm said.
“Just kind of seems like it was meant to be for them or not for us,” said Liberal coach BJ Goodell. “They’re a good team, we knew that coming in. It’s a good conference rival; in all sports these guys face each other, so it’s a friendly rivalry that we have going back and forth. Osborne with his daughter on the mound and my daughter on the mound is always fun. It’s more fun when you win it like we did in the conference game. We found a way to win a lot of those games this year and we came up short today.”
Liberal finishes with a 20-12 record.
The Bulldogs were led offensively by Simpson, who was 2-for-3 with two RBI’s. Pitcher Jordan Goodell struck out nine in her seven innings of work.
For Jasper, Bass was 3-for-4 with two runs and one driven in. Taylor Hinds and Shiloh Storm each drove in three and Dumm, Bass and Haddock each scored twice. Dumm added three walks.
“We’re hoping to finish strong,” Dumm said. “It’s great because we’ve been there before so hopefully the nerves won’t be as high. We’re really hoping to do better than last year.”
