Highland Park had Cassandra Huth and her Emporia High teammates pinned against the backstop, ready to steal away what would be a huge season-opening win for the Spartans.
But Huth, still making her way back to full health from a knee injury, led the Spartans out of the jam and got EHS off to a confidence-building start in 2009.
After Highland Park made Emporia’s one-run lead as tenuous as it could be, loading the bases with nobody out in the top of the seventh, Huth did her best pitching when the Spartans really needed it. She got a three-pitch strikeout, a popup to first base and another K to leave the bases clogged and give Emporia High a 4-3 victory in Game One of its season-opening doubleheader on Friday at Trusler Sports Complex.
“It was obviously nerve-wracking,” Huth said. “But I had faith in my infield that all I had to do was make it so that they would put the ball in play, and they would get the out. I wasn’t concerned with striking them out or anything like that. I was just concerned with not walking them at that point.”
Emporia didn’t fare so well in Game Two, dropping it by an 8-2 score. But after a 2008 season in which it took 17 games before the Spartans got a taste of victory, consider it a big lift for EHS to get in the W column on the season’s first day.
“The girls (said), ‘Coach, we’re already winners,’” EHS coach Ray Owens said. “It was a good feeling. They played a good ballgame there.”
Hanging onto that one-run lead, Emporia began the top of the seventh exhibiting the signs of a team that was about to fall apart. Huth plunked Scots leadoff hitter Shelby Frye, and when Tanis Gaines attempted to bunt her over, EHS third baseman Maryann Bennett couldn’t field the ball cleanly, notching an error that put runners at first and second. Kaiya Fletcher followed with a single to left to load the bases.
From there, Huth made the pitches she needed to make. She sent Highland Park cleanup hitter Briannah Williams down swinging on three pitches, then got Taylor Wilson to pop up to Lexi Hileman at first base. Then she ended the game by retiring Katie Wilson with a well-placed called strike three on the outside corner, completing a winning start in which she surrendered three runs and 10 hits while striking out eight.
“I was pleased with my performance, based on the fact that it is the first game of the season,” she said. “Gives me some idea of what I need to work on, and (that’s) always good.”
The Spartans scored runs in each of the first three innings of Game One. Hannah Lynch’s RBI single in the bottom of the first scored Hilary Heinrichs, who had doubled to lead off the inning, to make it 1-0. In the bottom of the second, Katie Weaver singled up the middle and Megan Burton doubled over Tana Gaines’ head in left field to put runners on second and third. On a subsequent wild pitch, Weaver decided to stay put at third, but Burton tried to advance, crossing the bag at third before trying to scamper back. But while the Scots ran down and tagged out Burton near second base, Weaver came in to score.
After Highland Park got a run in the top half of the third, the Spartans made it 3-1 in the third when Lenae Wells singled, advanced to second on an error and scored on an RBI single to right by Weaver. Weaver finished with a stellar opening day, notching singles in each of her first five at-bats over the two games before finally being retired in her final plate appearance.
“That was all that (was), seeing the ball really well,” Weaver said. “I don’t know. I just felt really confident. I’d worked a lot in practice on my hitting, so it was really nice.”
The Scots evened the score at 3 in the top of the fifth when Frye belted a two-run homer over the right field fence. But Emporia got a break the following inning for what turned out to be the winning run.
After Lydia Roemer singled with one out, Hannah Lynch reached on a fielder’s choice. Highland Park catcher Williams tried to pick Lynch off at first, but her throw overshot the first baseman and sailed into the right field corner. Lynch reached third easily, then came home when second baseman Katie Wilson mishandled the throw back in from right field.
In Game Two, the Spartans closed a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 before a four-run sixth inning for the Scots put the game away. Freshman pitcher Gabriella Bohrer shined for the Spartans after relieving a struggling Hannah Lynch after two batters in the third inning. Bohrer got a flyout, a fielder’s choice and a strikeout to end the third, then was literally unhittable for the next two innings, mowing down the side both times to tally seven strikeouts in a row.
The Scots finally got to Bohrer and the Spartan defense in the sixth. Taylor Wilson led off with a double, Katie Wilson singled and Iyonna Shinskia brought home a run with a sacrifice fly. Then an RBI single by Savannah Castorena, followed by two errors on the play, brought three runs home to fatten Highland Park’s lead to five. Emporia had five errors in game two, with three coming during the Scots’ three-run second. Bennett had an RBI double for the Spartans in the third inning.
“Hey, these kids, I mean, I can see that in practice — they are much, much improved,” Owens said. “But that second game, I told ’em... that’s not us. That was last year, and the year before, and a couple of years (before) — that’s not us, and we’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna come out here, and we’re gonna work on that kind of stuff, and we’re gonna get it out.”
Friday at Trusler
Game One
Highland Park 001 020 0 — 3 10 3
Emporia 111 010 x — 4 9 4
WP — Huth. LP — K. Wilson
E — HP: Ta. Gaines, Williams, Fletcher; EHS: Roemer 3, Bennett. 2B — HP: Cohee; EHS: Heinrichs, Burton. HR — HP: Frye. HBP — HP: Frye.
Game Two
Highland Park 030 004 1 — 8 6 3
Emporia 002 000 0 — 2 4 5
WP — Fletcher. LP — Lynch.
E — HP: Frye 2, Castorena; EHS: Heinrichs 2, Bennett, Wells, Hileman. 2B — HP: Williams, T. Wilson; EHS: Bennett. HR — HP: Williams. HBP — HP: T. Wilson.