By: J. Daniel Pearson
When a game is close and well-played, there is an old saying in sports about “neither team deserved to lose.” And although it’s somewhat of an old cliché, it certainly was apropos on Wednesday night, as top-seeded St. Cloud escaped with a 2-1 win over rival Harmony in the Class 7A, District 6 softball championship.
All the scoring in the game would occur in the final and decisive seventh inning. Harmony’s Noelle Stephenson led off the top of the inning by lacing a triple to the right-center field gap. Emerson Alsan popped out to second before Janisse Perez’s bloop single to center scored Stephenson, who had to wait to see If the ball was caught. Went it fell, she scored easily and Perez ended up on third on a throwing error as St. Cloud tried to get Stephenson at the plate.
With just one out, St. Cloud first baseman Shyenne Hawkins saved a second run when she tracked down and made a backhanded catch of Deanna Wright’s soft line drive in short right field for the second out and pitcher Addison Felblinger got Jade Allen to foul out to first to prevent any additional damage.
“Shyenne’s catch was a huge play in the game,” St. Cloud coach Ray Whobrey said. “It they score that second run, the whole complexion of the game could have changed. Addie and her defense played great all night and keeping that second run off the board was huge.”
The Bulldogs would rally for the win in the bottom of the inning.
After Jaz Santiago lined out to second to start the inning, Felblinger reached on infield single to deep short. A controversial play would then put the go-ahead run on base. Lacey Scott bunted the ball down the first base line. The ball was fielded by Alsan but on her throw to first, Scott collided with second baseman Allen who dropped the ball while covering on the play.
Scott was ruled safe on the play to put runners on the corners with one out. “From my vantage point, it looked like she (Scott) was running inside the baseline. But the call wasn’t made and that was the way it went.” Harmony coach Kristi Mindrup said. “I was so proud of how hard this team fought all night.”
The game, that was played in just 1:09 minutes, was a pitching dual between Felblinger and Staley all night. Both gave up just two hits in the first six innings and both went long stretches in the game without allowing a base runner.
St. Cloud had a runner in scoring position in the first inning when Maddie Reyes walked and Grace Comiskey singled. With one out, Santiago sacrificed the runners into scoring position, but Felblinger grounded out to short to end the inning.
From there, Staley retired 15 of the next 16 batters she faced, allowing only a bloop double to Comiskey in the third.
Felblinger was equally stingy. She sat down 18 of the 20 batters she faced in the first six frames, allowing just an infield single to Aslan in the second and a single to Mackenzie Whitehourse to leadoff the sixth.
With the win, St. Cloud moves to 17-10 on the season and will host a regional quarterfinal game next Thursday. Although Harmony dropped to 11-12, they entered the game ranked fifth in the region and most likely will receive one of four at-large regional bids awarded to non-district winners.
Despite his team beating Harmony 7-0 two weeks ago in the Orange Belt Conference championship game, Whobrey said he was not surprised at Wednesday’s score. “They have a really good team and both squads played a great game tonight,” the veteran coach said. “We made several big plays defensively tonight and were fortunate to get that big hit at the end.”
