It was a battle the entire game between the South O’Brien and Central Lyon softball teams on Thursday June 15 at Rock Rapids. The Lions struck first with three runs in the bottom of the first. The Wolverines then went ahead 4-3 with four runs in the top of the second. Five base hits by Payton Farquhar, Maddie Johnson, Reese Farquhar, Alyssa Van Beek and Shay Hatting were the reason for the four runs. Central Lyon came up with a run in the bottom of the second to tie the game at 4-4. Neither team scored in the third inning.
In the bottom of the fourth the Lions put three runs on the board to make it 7-4 in CL’s favor. South O’Brien then tied it up at 7-7 in the top of the fifth. Hatting had the only hit, but all three runs scored on a misplayed ball in centerfield that was hit by Payton Farquhar. In the bottom of the fifth Central Lyon kept up the scoring by plating four more runs to go up 11-7. Neither team scored in the sixth.
In the top of the seventh Abby Nelson and Karlee Warnke hit back to back doubles. Payton Farquhar walked. With the score at 8-11 and no outs, Warnke scored on a groundout by Johnson. With the tying run at the plate for two outs we just couldn’t quite get the job done. The last two batters hit an infield fly and infield grounder. This was a back-and-forth, very fun game to be a part of.
Hatting pitched one of her best games of the season and went the full game and gave up 11 hits, 11 runs (five earned), walked three and struck out eight. The Wolverines committed four errors on defense that did not help the cause.
On the offensive side, Hatting lead the charge going 3-for-4 with an RBI and her courtesy runner Kelsee Warnke scoring two. Johnson hit a pair of singles and had two RBI’s. Karlee Warnke hit a double, scored once and had an RBI. Nelson also had a double and scored two times. Payton Farquhar hit a single, scored one and had an RBI. Van Beek had a single and two runs and Reese Farquhar hit a single.
S. O’Brien
0 4 0 0 3 0 2 – 9
C. Lyon
3 1 0 3 4 0 x – 11