Falling 3-1 to visiting Sleepy Eye on Thursday, the varsity girls fell into the elimination bracket of the section 2A tournament.
They will need to beat ninth-seeded Springfield at Caswell Park tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:00 to stay alive and play again at noon against the loser of second-seeded NUC vs third-seeded MCW. USC edged Springfield 1-0.
Working the edges of the strike zone, the Indian’s pitcher racked up 13 strikeouts with five of them looking. She left seven Clippers on base.
“She did pitch a lot of balls outside,” said head coach April Thompson. “The girls didn’t seem to like the outside pitches, but we have to adjust as batters to go get that. We're working on it.”
With two runs in the first, the Indians never trailed. Outhitting the Clippers 5-2, they added an insurance run I n the seventh
The Clippers’ lone run came in the fourth when Keira Schipper led off with a single. Kaitlyn Flowers walked, both advanced on a wild pitch, and Schipper scored from third on a Brooke Bosse ground out.
A Flowers line drive to center field for a double in the sixth was the Clippers’ only other hit. They walked six times. Neither team committed an error.
The Indian’s pair of runs in the first came on a walk, an RBI double and an RBI single. Their run int the seventh came after two walks and an RBI double.
“They executed a couple of times when runners were on base, and we didn’t,” Thompson said. “It was a great game. A couple of plays here or there makes all the difference.”
Delaney Thompson tossed all seven innings. She struck out seven, five looking while walking five and hitting three batters. The Clippers left 10 Sleepy Eye runners on base.
Above: At second base, Taylor McCabe coils for a putout throw to first.
