By Nolan Epstein (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The third time was the charm for the Walnut Grove Lady Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
After nearly upending Marion C. Early twice in the regular season, second-seeded Walnut Grove (12-14) finally figured out what it took to get over the hump in its biggest game of the year – defeating the host and No. 1 seed Lady Panthers (14-8) by a final of 6-3 and claiming a Class 1, District 3 championship in the process.
“The one goal we had after they beat us the first time and the second time was to get back over here and beat them on their own field,” Walnut Grove head coach Jeff Dishman said of Morrisville. “You know the old adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times, but I don’t really believe in that. I thought we were the better team today.”
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Besides collecting a long-awaited victory over the talented Lady Panthers, Dishman’s squad also exercised the demons that haunted it in postseason play over the past two seasons – falling in the district title game in 2014 and 2015 before breaking through on Saturday.
“It feels so good, especially after coming up short the past two years,” said starting pitcher Raylie Hejna. “I couldn’t be more happy.”
Hejna was a revelation for her Lady Tigers in the district title tilt, allowing just one earned run on two hits while striking out nine over seven innings of brilliant work.
The senior hurler was ready to roll from the start as seven of the first nine outs she recorded in the contest came via the strikeout.
And even when Marion C. Early was able to put the bat on the ball, not much happened. After a double by leadoff hitter Katie Collins got her team going in the bottom of the first, the Lady Panthers couldn’t dent the hit column again until the final frame.
“Raylie is very capable of that and it seems like here in the last two weeks, things have really started to click for her,” Dishman said. “She came out here against a good team, and just hit spots and made great pitches.”
Morrisville starter Erica Brisley was very effective herself – allowing five hits and punching out three through five innings – but the defense behind her didn’t help matters as the Lady Panthers committed four errors, which led to five big unearned runs and a tough end to the season.
“When you make errors, that always comes back to get you against a good team in a big game like this,” an emotional Morrisville head coach Mike McHolland said. “It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, you’ve got to play clean in the field, have good pitching and have timely hitting. We didn’t get that done today.”
Timely hitting was the name of the game for Walnut Grove, which turned those errors into scoring opportunities that it fully took advantage of in the second and fifth innings.
“Every good team should be able to do that,” added Dishman of capitalizing on mistakes. “I told the girls this morning in batting practice that we were going to get on [Morrisville] early and take chances. It kind of went our way.”
As they prepare to graduate six seniors, Marion C. Early will head into the offseason hoping to build off a 2016 campaign filled with plenty of positives.
“I told the returning kids that we’ve got work to do this winter and spring,” McHolland said. “We’ll come back next fall, just like this fall.”
Walnut Grove squares off with Hermitage (16-8) in the sectional round on Wednesday.
