Lady Leps Come Back To Beat Giddings 5-4
-
In a chaotic moment in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s game, La Grange’s Abby Cernosek, right, runs to third and gets ready to go home with the tying run (at the urging of Lady Leps head coach Ted Ferretti, left) as a Giddings throw goes into the outfi eld. Photo by Jeff Wick -
La Grange’s Brooke Ulrich was the winning pitcher in Tuesday’s game after coming in for relief in the sixth inning. Photo by Jeff Wick
After starting district with five straight losses, the La Grange softball team was in desperate need of a victory Tuesday to get them back in the playoff race.
With important contributions from just about everybody on the team, the Lady Leps got that much-needed first district victory with a 5-4 win over Giddings in extra innings.
Freshman Hannah Mitchell hit a two-out walk-off double that scored Kylin Brawley with the game-wining run. Mitchell was mobbed by her teammates at second base after the hit.
“We’ve just been so close to victories, 1-0 losses, one run games. This win is truly significant to us,” La Grange head coach Ted Ferretti said. “We needed that to show to ourselves that we can do it. I believed in our team all year long.”
But just to get to that winning moment took a big team effort from La Grange Starting pitcher Iylah King held Giddings scoreless through the first five innings as La Grange built a 3-0 lead thanks to a triple by Haedyn Cooper in the fourth, an RBI single by Anabella Dela Rosa that plated Mitchell and some speedy base running by Abby Cernosek.
Giddings rallied to cut that lead to 3-2 in the sixth before Brooke Ulrich relieved King and got out of a two-on, no out jam with no more runs scoring.
But in the top of seventh Giddings added two more runs to take a 4-3 lead.
La Grange responded when Cernosek singled and came all the way home when Giddings threw away a bunt by Dela Rosa.
In the bottom of the 8th La Grange finally won. Brawley singled and advanced to third on a double by Ulrich. Then Mitchell calmly hit the game winner.
Mitchell, Cernosek and Dela Rosa are all freshmen playing well beyond their years.
“There was a lot of weight that was put on some freshmen there at the end of the game,” Ferretti said. “Those young ladies really handled it. If we didn’t believe in those young ladies they wouldn’t be out there in the first place. This was a total team win, every player, every coach.”
The Lady Leps (now 1211-1 overall) return to district play Tuesday April 7 at home against Caldwell.
22-4A Softball Smithville 6-0 Bellville 5-1 Giddings 3-3 Caldwell 2-3 La Grange 1-5 Navasota 0-5