GARNETT — Leading 4-2 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, it appeared that Iola High’s Fillies were going to get the win in a well-played game. But, Anderson County’s Samantha McCullough rewrote the script with a game-tying two-run home run over the center field wall.
“I told the girls that their toughness is getting better. It would have been easier to just lay down and take the loss,” coach Melissa Stiffler said. “That’s what we’ve been working on in practice. We call it psych time — sports psychology. You can have all the physical abilities in hitting, but if you’re mentally quitting, then you’re defeated.”
They used their practice time to their advantage and the Fillies offensive stayed focused.
In the eighth inning, Riley Murry started it with a leadoff walk. Emily McKarnin laid down a sacrifice bunt, putting Murry in scoring position at second base. Shelby Reno hit a chopper back to the pitcher, putting Murry at third base. She didn’t end up scoring in the inning, but it was a good way to gain a little confidence back, foreshadowing things to come.
Anderson County started the bottom of the eighth by getting their first two runners on base. Iola’s Sydney Wade buckled down and got two strikeouts in a row. She then finished the inning by getting a taper back to the mound, which she threw to first base for the third out.
Iola’s offense struck in the ninth inning. Ashlie Shields started it off with a single. Chloe Gardner laced a ball to third base, which was ruled an error, but nonetheless, put two runners on base with no outs. Wade came to the plate and slammed the ball to third base. Shields tried to make it to third, but was tagged out.
With runners at first and second, Katie Shields came up with the big hit. She hit a without-a-doubt single into center field, scoring Gardner. Sigg came up with another big at-bat. For the umpteenth time in the inning, Sigg nailed a ball that went off the third baseman’s glove and into the outfield. Both Shields and Wade came in to score and Iola had a 7-4 lead.
Wade came back to pitch the ninth — she started the game — and got a 1-2-3 inning. Stiffler said she has been impressed with Wade this season, since this is the sophomore’s first year playing softball. She said she has a winner’s mentality.
“It was unfortunate Anderson County hit that home run, but we played better than that,” Stiffler said. “The score showed the team that should have won that first game, did.”
Earlier in the game, in the sixth inning, Wade got out of a huge jam. With the bases loaded and no one out, Iola held onto its 4-2 lead. A line drive was lasered toward Ashlie Shields at shortstop. She caught it and then threw it to McKarnin at third base to get a quick double play. After a hit-by-pitch loaded up the bases again, Wade induced a grounder back to the mound to get the third out.
“I was impressed with that,” Stiffler said. “When they came off the field with the bases loaded and had no outs, they said, ‘They are not taking this game from us.’”
Game two didn’t go quite as easily for the Fillies.
With runners on first and second in the fourth inning, Taylor Heslop came to the plate and hit a ball that fell into right field. Instead of a single that would have given the Fillies the lead, she was thrown out at first base by the right fielder to end the top of the frame. Anderson County came back for five runs in the bottom of the inning.
Ashlie Shields got the Fillies both of their runs in the game in the top of the fifth. She nailed a pitch out to right field that scored two runs. She easily had second base on the throw from the center fielder to home plate. But, she was thrown out trying to sneak to third base.
Anderson County added two more runs to get the win.
“It was closer than 7-2 in my opinion,” Stiffler said. “They played us tough. They had some really good hits and we didn’t.”
Iola (2-4) hosts Chanute at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
Fillies avoid late inning catastrophe for extra-inning win
