Iola softball won a thrilling game 4-3 against Independence on Monday night.
Coach Vince Coons said the team stuck to its game plan in pitching Mackenzie Weseloh for four innings and then Hannah Endicott for the final three innings.
In the top of the first inning, the first two Bulldog runners reached on a walk and a bunt single. The Fillies were able to negate those runners by turning a triple play.
In the bottom half of the frame, Endicott hit an RBI single to take a 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless second, Iola scored one more in the third. Endicott scored on a single by Shelby Reno. Independence answered twice in the top of the fourth to tie it 2-2. Iola took back the lead in the bottom of the inning, as Katie Shields scored on an RBI single from Taylor Heslop. The Bulldogs scored again in the fifth, to tie the game at 3-3.
In the seventh, Iola’s defense stepped up. The Bulldogs’ leadoff hitter hit a ball over Katie Shields’ head. After chasing down the ball, Katie Shields threw the ball to the cutoff who threw out the runner at third for the first out of the inning. Then, with runners at first and second, and still one out, Ashlie Shields stopped a grounder at short. She threw out the runner heading for third, and Reno tossed out the batter heading for first for a double play to end the ending.
“We work on stuff like that. Sometimes it’s like we spend a lot of time hitting the balls over the outfielders’ heads, getting the cutoff and making the throws,” Coons said. “We’ve been practicing and they did it right.”
In the bottom half of the seventh, the Fillies had two outs and runners on first and second. Endicott hit a ball down the third base line, scoring the winning run.
“I was watching the ball the whole way, just waiting for them to call it foul,” Coons said.
The Fillies head to Central Heights for a doubleheader today starting at 4:30 p.m.
