Resilient Lady Big Red bounces Monroeville
Sitting just three outs from advancing to the District semifinals, Monroeville blinked and Plymouth capitalized in eyeopening fashion.
The Lady Big Red erased a two-run deficit with three in the top of the seventh, and even after seeing the Lady Eagles rally with a run in the bottom of the inning, Plymouth remained hot with two in the eighth to help close out an 8-6 victory Tuesday night at Galion’s Heise Park.
The PHS bats piled up seven hits in the seventh and eighth innings combined, after tallying seven through the first six innings. Plymouth (1510) jumped out to leads of 2-0 in the first and that chased home 3-0 in the third, before Branham with the Monroeville (22-6) tying run--bringing rallied with a pair of an end to the pitching unearned runs in the night of Camryn third and three more in Hurst, who went 6-1/3 the fifth on a three-run innings, allowing nine home run to centerfield hits and two walks, by Abbi Poths to claim while striking out a 5-3 advantage. seven.
Poths was Aryssa Horne, who dynamic defensively also tallied three hits throughout the for Plymouth, greeted evening at short, as reliever Emily Scheid well. But the Lady Big with an Rbi-double to Red took advantage right, scoring Back and of one mistake that giving the Lady Big ignited their seventh Red a 6-5 lead. inning rally. Now it was
Chloe Trine, who Plymouth that stood went 3-for-5 with on the verge of the three runs scored and District finals, after a pair of stolen bases Back, who pitched all for Plymouth, reached eight innings, allowing to lead off the seventh six runs (four earned) when Poths’ ensuing on nine hits--striking throw sailed low to out four without first and could not be issuing a walk--retired dug out. the first two batters
Trine stole second of the Monroeville and scored two seventh. batters later on an But Poths wasn’t Rbi-single by Jaylin finished yet, as she Branham. Makenzie delivered a double and Back followed with a stole third base. Taryn booming Rbi-double *Tyler followed with
a looping Rbi-single to left that tied the game. Scheid added a single, but Plymouth escaped when Horne fielded Hurst’s sharp grounder to first for the final out.
“It was definitely a day were I found myself going from extremely mad to extremely glad,” said Plymouth Head Coach Bryon Bailey with a smile. “These were things like we experienced in the regular season, and a lot of times when things went wrong, the kids got down and it caused a ripple effect in the dugout. Today they didn’t do that and I give them a lot of credit for just continuing to battle.”
Lilly Cook doubled to deep right to open the eighth, but was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple. Kristi Yeager picked her up with an infield single and Trine put Plymouth ahead with a slap Rbi-triple to left. Bree Fellows added an insurance run with an Rbi-single to center, to make it 8-6.
“We had a lot of timely hitting today,” noted Bailey. “We still left 10 people on, which I’m not a fan of at all. But we had some really good hits today and just about everybody got on base for us, and that’s good to see.”
Trine singled and scored on an Rbidouble by Branham in the first inning. Branham came around on an Rbi-single by Horne.
Fellows singled to lead off the third and eventually scored on a throwing error following a ground ball out.
The PHS defense had a couple of errors prove costly in the bottom of the third, as Monroeville’s
Harmony Lavalley reached on a ground ball error to lead off the inning. After a single by Rachel Fries and a bunt single by Avery Rosser loaded the bases, the Lady Big Red nearly worked themselves all the way back--behind Back. She induced a pop-up and a shallow fly ball out to keep the bases loaded. But Tyler’s ensuing fly ball was dropped, plating Lavalley and Fries to make it 3-2.
Rosser was hit by a pitch with one out in the fifth and Madison Reiber reached on a bunt single, before Poths left the ballpark with her go-ahead blast.
The win boosts the Lady Big Red into Thursday’s District finals (also at Galion at 5 p.m.) against the South Central Lady Trojans, a 7-2 winner over New London in the semifinal nightcap on Tuesday.
It also marked a win in what was the rubber match between Plymouth and Monroeville, who split their season series. The Lady Big Red split, 1-1, with all three of the other Galion District FC teams.
“Our conference is really good for how small of schools we are,” stated Bailey. “Here we are in the District semifinals and all four teams are from the Firelands Conference.”