Lady Indians top Trinity Valley 8-3 in CWS
YUMA, Ariz. – The McCook Community College softball team knocked off another Texas team – 10th seeded Trinity Valley – with an 8-3 win Wednesday in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division 1 World Series.
MCC will play another elimination game at 8 p.m. tonight.
"Another quality win for us," said MCC Coach Mike Mendenhall. "We kept everything pretty much the same as yesterday and it worked."
The win was the 50th of the season for the Lady Indians.
MCC came back from a 2-0 first-inning deficit, took the lead on a wild bunt play in the fourth inning and added four runs in the sixth with freshman Payton Kinsley (Didsbury, Alberta) delivering a bases-loaded, three-run double to put the game away.
"Our two pitchers threw great, we had timely hits and we did a better job defensively today as well," said Mendenhall.
The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead after two outs in the first inning on a hit batter, a triple and an error on the throw in.
Freshman Paige Warren (Victoria, British Columbia) reached first base on an error by the third baseman to lead off the third. She stole second and came home on a one-out single by Kinsley to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Kaliyah St. Amand (freshman, Duncan, British Columbia) walked to lead off the MCC fourth and when sophomore Anna Elliott laid down a bunt it ended up giving MCC a 3-2 lead when Elliott reached base safely on the bunt single but a throwing error allowed both St. Amand and Elliott to score.
The Lady Indians added another run in the fifth on a one out double by Kinsley and a two-out RBI-single by starting pitcher Sadie Kahl (sophomore, Calgary, Alberta) to put MCC up 4-2.
After Trinity Valley's Kiara Wiedenhaupt homered to lead off the Cardinal, fifth, St. Amand came on in relief on Kahl and retired the side striking out the first two hitters and getting the final batter to pop out.
In four-plus innings, Kahl allowed three earned runs on five hits, two walks and two strikeouts.
Sophomore Rocio Mascorro (Brownsville, Texas) was hit by a pitch to lead off the MCC sixth and Warren singled on a shallow fly ball over the shortstop with runners moving on to second and third on an error by the centerfielder.
Laila Gutierrez (sophomore, Seminole, Texas) worked a 16-pitch at bat for a walk to load the bases for Kinsley who drove in all three runners to put MCC up 7-3. With two-outs, Kahl singled home Kinsley for the final score of the game.
St. Amand hit a batter with one out in the bottom of the sixth but induced back-to-back infield popouts to get out of the inning.
In the bottom of the seventh after Trinity's first batter popped to shortstop, the Cardinals rallied to put two batters on base on an MCC error and a single but St. Amand struck out the final two batters to send MCC on to another game Wednesday.
Kahl was credited with the win, but St. Amand picked up a three-inning save allowing no runs or walks with one hit and four strikeouts.
MCC out-hit the team from Athens, Texas 10-6. Kinsley and Kahl both had three hits with Kinsley driving in there and Kahl two. Warren also had two hits for MCC.
"These girls are locked in," said Mendenhall
The Indians will play again at 8 p.m. tonight against the winner of a championship bracket game between No. 1 Florida Southwestern State and No. 9 Butler.
MCC 50-10, eliminates Trinity Valley State who finishes the year 50-14.