Sweet Ending On Senior Night

Lincoln Girls Overcome West Fork 10-9

LINCOLN — Although the game went extra innings, the evening shadows were long and the air cooled a bit, the ending was sweet for the Lincoln girls on senior night

The Lady Wolves took home a 10-9 softball win over conference foe, West Fork, on Monday as Lincoln paid tribute to their seniors. Katelan Cummings, Rashelle Goldman, Ashley Maberry, Alyssa Neeley, Morgan Reed, Brooke Smith and Shannon Smith closed the book on their regular season career at Lincoln with a win.

“I was glad they never gave up,” said Lincoln coach Karen Coleman, who went on to note, “We were behind 2-0 and came back and scored three runs. We were behind 7-3 and tied it in the sixth. Then, we were down two and tied it in the eighth, winning it in the ninth.”

Goldman went 4-5 with three RBIS; Reed was 2-3 and scored three times; while Hayle Sugg was 3-5 with three RBIS and Shelby Rowe also went 3-5 with three RBIS and hit the game winner to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the ninth.

“I’m very proud of Kayleen Rush. She pitched an excellent ball-game,” Coleman said.

The Lady Wolves are the top seed as they host the 3A-1 district tournament this weekend. Lincoln has a firstround bye and will play at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

“Kayleen had two big strikeouts in the ninth and got the third batter to ground out to second base,” Coleman said.

Maberry started a rally in the sixth with a leadoff walk. Then Ashtin Calico was hit by a pitch. After an out, Rowe belted two runs in with a double. After the second out, Reed walked and raced home on Sugg’s single. Sugg then scored on a single by Goldman to tie the game, at 7-all.

After building a two-run lead in the top of the eighth, West Fork coach told his team, “We’ll trade an out for a run,” and the Tigers promptly got two of the first three Lady Wolves out, but allowed Rowe to advance to third on a wild pitch and Reed to steal second after a walk. This set the stage for Goldman’s heroic two RBI, game-tying single.

Rush retired the Tigers after hitting the second batter. Then, Jaycie Neeley’s leadoff single sent the base runner to third and the winning score came on Rowe’s double.

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Little sister, Jaycie Neeley (freshman), presents big sister, Alyssa Neeley (senior) with gifts as the Lincoln girls softball team celebrated senior night on Monday. The Lady Wolves overcame deficits three times to prevail in extra innings, 10-9, over...