Hovpensports.com - Highland sweeps Hutch

March 15, 2013

Steve Carpenter, HCC-SID
Special to Hovpensports.com

SCOTTIES RALLY TO GET GAME 1, THEN SWEEP LADY DRAGONS

HIGHLAND - The Hutchinson Community College softball team was two outs away from a signature victory on Friday in Game 1 of a Jayhawk East doubleheader with No. 18 Highland and lightning struck twice for the Scotties in their final at-bat.

Leading by two runs, the Lady Dragons saw Highland tie it Holly Willmarth's two-run home run off the top of the left-center field wall. Two batters later, the Scotties won it in walk-off fashion as Kaley Pyles homered to left to shock the Lady Dragons 4-3 in the opener.

The Lady Dragons committed five errors in the nightcap as Highland scored six runs in the first three innings and rolled to an 8-2 victory.

Hutchinson falls to 7-7 overall and 2-4 in both the Jayhawk East and Region VI-Division II standings. The Lady Dragons will play at 1 p.m. on Saturday in another league and region doubleheader at Kansas City, Kansas, Community College.

GAME 1 RECAP - Highland 4, HCC 3

Freshman pitcher Sidney Dey was in the process of crafting her finest performance of the young season against the nationally ranked Scotties.

Through six and 6 2-3 innings, Dey tied a season high with six strikeouts and had allowed only four hits and one earned run.

Dey worked out of a huge mess in the second when four-straight Highland batters reached, but only one scored as Dey got a strikeout and a flyball to center to get out of the jam.

Entering the seventh, Dey struck out Ashleigh Perry. Highland leadoff hitter Emma Hill had a slap infield single to the left side and stole second. Willmarth then tied the game at 3-all with a two-run homer to left-center field. After striking out pinch-hitter Taylor Zimmerman, Pyles got a hold of a Dey offering and homered to left for the walk-off victory.

Dey (4-2) threw her second complete game of the season. She had six strikeouts and allowed seven hits, two walks and four earned runs.

The Lady Dragons gave Dey good early run support with single runs in each of the first three innings.

Freshman Asia Budd hit a solo home run in the first inning to put HCC up 1-0. Sophomore Yasnaya Suseoff singled home Sydney Locke in the second for a 2-0 lead. After Budd was hit by a pitch to lead off the third, freshman Makenzi Shackley doubled her home from first for a 3-1 Hutchinson lead.

Each team had seven hits in the game. Budd was 2 for 4 with a pair of runs scored. Sophomore Hannah Kruskop went 2 for 3. Shackley went 2 for 4.

Lauren Massey threw five innings of scoreless relief, allowing just three hits with one strikeout.

HCC left seven runners on base in Game 1.

GAME 2 RECAP - Highland 8, HCC 2

Things went south in a hurry for Hutchinson in the nightcap as Highland parlayed three first-inning Lady Dragon errors into three runs and the Scotties never looked back.

Highland scored six runs in the first three innings off HCC starter Kelly Buckman (0-3). The Scotties had 11 hits in the game.

The only HCC offense came from a two-out RBI single by sophomore Mariah Wedel in the second and Wedel scoring on a Highland fielding error in the sixth. The Lady Dragons had just six hits.

Wedel went 2 for 3 to lead the Lady Dragons. Shackley, freshman Shelby Smith and Locke had the other hits. The Lady Dragons had plenty of baserunners, stranding 12 on base.

Kansas NEWS

[More]

Latest Headlines:

Resources:

Click to see job openings »


			Quick links: Latest Team Rankings Free Text Alerts Member Services