Eupora softball continues to move along in the playoffs.
After the Lady Eagles held Bruce scoreless in two playoff games in round one, they had to break out the bats for round two against a strong Walnut team. A wild game one gave the Lady Eagles some confidence to finish things off in game two on Friday and the team earned a sweep.
Thursday night’s first game put both Eupora and Walnut on a ride in the opening inning.
The Lady Wildcats dropped four runs on the board in the top of the inning and Eupora followed with an incredible 11-run inning in the bottom of the frame. Though things would calm down the rest of the way, Eupora had to hold on late in the game in order to get the 12-9 victory.
With the way that Walnut came out firing, it would have been easy for the Lady Eagles to get discouraged. Coach Clay Grissom watched his team fight instead.
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence finding yourself in a hole early and then scratching and clawing and finding a way to climb back out of it,” Grissom said. “They hit a lot of balls in spots where no one was, but we didn’t let it affect us and made the next play. When we didn’t make a play, we didn’t blink.”
It was a first inning that was quite unforgettable for the two teams with a total of 15 runs scored between the two teams. Walnut started it with the first four batters reaching with hits including two doubles. The Wildcats had five total hits in the opening inning as they built a 4-0 lead and it felt healthy at the time until Eupora went to work.
After a leadoff walk from Cydney Murphy led off the bottom of the inning, Eupora would string together five-straight hits of its own and an incredible eight-straight batters would reach. Add in two more errors towards the end of the inning and 14 at bats delivered an 11-4 lead.
“I saw a lot of quality at bats,” Grissom said. “We’ve preached quality at bats all year and just doing your job and not trying to do too much. I was more proud of us not dropping our heads.”
Eupora would add a run in the second inning, but their offense stalled the rest of the way and it was all about holding that lead. Walnut slowly crept back into the game with at least a run in each of the next four innings closing it to 12-9 heading to the sixth.
Grissom chose to replace starter Belle Tedder that frame and Bella White would shut things down. She threw the final 2.0 innings with no hits, no runs, two walks and three strikeouts.
“We knew with the velocity difference that they would struggle a little bit if she would throw strikes and she came in and shut the door,” Grissom said. “She did everything that we asked her to do and we’re proud of her.”
Murphy was the leader at the plate in the game with a 2-for-3 night and the walk that started the rally in the first. Tedder was also 2-for-3 at the plate with a walk and RBI and Maddie McMullan had two RBI and a triple that would give the team its 12th run in the second frame.
While more action came in the opening frame on Friday night, it was a much more calm start to the game as Eupora trailed 3-2 after an inning. Tied at 6-6 heading into the seventh, the Lady Eagles scored three runs in the top of the frame and would hold on for three outs on the way to a 9-6 victory.
With Walnut leading the ball game 4-2 in the four, Eupora got four-straight hits to start the inning with an RBI triple from Murphy and an RBI single from Ansley Mason tying things up. Jaden Guinn’s double and a two-out single from Lindsey Turnipseed gave the Lady Eagles a 6-4 lead.
The game was tied in the seventh when Guinn came through with a bunt single that would get Eupora the lead back. Two out magic came again as Emma Tindall singled and McMullan doubled to extend the lead.
White pitched a dominant seventh with two strikeouts and a 1-2-3 frame that would earn the win. The pitcher threw a complete game with just four hits allowed but she gave up four earned runs and five walks and she struck out 11 batters.
It was a second-straight strong day at the plate offensively as the Lady Eagles had 15 hits with Mason and White going 3-for-4 and White had a triple with two RBI. Murphy was 2-for-4with a triple and an RBI and Guinn and McMullan drove in a run on two hits.
Eupora (22-10) continues its ride this weekend as the Lady Eagles are playing the winner of the defending 2A champions of East Union and Class 2A, Region 4 rival Sebastopol. Game three of that series had not been played by press time on Tuesday but the teams will meet beginning on Friday with the Lady Eagles going on the road for game one no matter what.
