Allen Community College’s softball team narrowly missed out on what would have been one of its most impressive comebacks in recent memory Thursday.
The Red Devils trailed nationally ranked Des Moines Area Community College by six runs heading into the bottom of the fifth inning.
Allen chipped away at the lead with a double here, a stolen base there, and by the time the dust settled, the score was 10-9, with the tying run on third base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
Allen’s Madisyn Havenstein, who already had homered once to start the comeback, narrowly missed tying the game when she poked a line drive to left that landed just inches outside the foul line.
But Des Moines reliever Ellie Flanagan was able to induce a ground ball to short two pitches later, to end the threat and the game.
The 10-9 defeat, coupled with a 5-0 loss in the first game of their doubleheader, drops Allen to 7-9.
“I’m proud of them for fighting back,” Red Devil coach Nicole Peters said. “We competed well against them, for sure.”
The Red Devils had their hands full in the opener against Des Moines pitcher Courtney Donohue, who improved to 6-1 and lowered her ERA to 0.58 with seven shutout innings. She allowed three hits, while striking out 18 of the 25 batters she faced.
“She kept us off balance,” Peters said. “She had a lot of movement we weren’t used to. She threw it out there a lot, and we didn’t make adjustments.”
Allen had a pair of scoring chances, but came up empty both times.
The first came when Brooklyn Goehring and Kylar Smith hit back-to-back infield singles with two outs in the third. But Smith was called out for interference as she advanced to second on a ground ball to end the threat.
Smith then walked to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Bailee Campbell reached on an infield single, putting runners at the corners with one out. But Donohue ended that threat with a pair of strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Allen’s Camrynn Yardley pitched a complete game for Allen. She struck out four and scattered eight hits over seven innings.
THREE RED Devil errors paved the way for a quick 3-0 Des Moines lead in Game 2.
But Allen found its offense as well.
Goering and Campbell singled to lead off ACC’s first inning. Morgan Collins drove in one with a sacrifice bunt, and a Des Moines error made it 3-2. But the Red Devils left two runners on without tying the score.
