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Softball: Marcus’ Blocker makes Irving Nimitz pay
BY RICKY MOORE, Staff Writer
IRVING — No matter what, Irving Nimitz wasn’t going to let Marcus cleanup hitter Sarah Draheim beat them Friday night.
After grounding out in the second inning, Draheim was intentionally walked the next three times she came to the plate.
The Lady Vikings instead challenged Marcus sophomore Danielle Blocker to beat them.
It didn’t take long for the move to backfire as Blocker ripped Christina Medina’s first pitch for a three-run double that helped the Lady Marauders defeat Nimitz, 3-0, in a one-game Class 5A Region II area round playoff series.
After the intentional walks, Marcus coach Christy Tumilty huddled with Blocker and the three base runners hoping to keep emotions check.
“She (Tumilty) told me to keep calm and not let my emotions get the best of me,” Blocker said. “Basically, I was waiting for her to make a mistake and put one down the middle. And that’s what she did.”
Blocker said she didn’t let the intentional walks get to her.
“That’s just part of the game,” she said. “It’s not really frustrating it’s just that they respect her and they didn’t think I could do it. But, it’s good that I showed them wrong.”
The win sends the Lady Marauders to the regional quarterfinals for the second time in three years. Marcus will face the winner of the Coppell-Plano series. The deciding game of the series will by played at 1 p.m. today at Frisco.
Nimitz moved to load the bases in the eighth, befuddled Tumilty, especially considering Blocker had singled to right only to have Heather Foust thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
“I mean statistically does that ever work out for a team?” said Tumilty regarding loading the bases with one out. “I was just so happy for Danielle because she has struggled a bit at the plate lately. I’m happy she came through.”
Earlier in the game, Tumilty challenged her team to find a way to score a run to back the pitching of Foust.
“I told them, ‘you guys aren’t doing your best at the plate. This is not your best performance, we have to find a way to manufacture a run,’” Tumilty said. “I felt like we were going to find a way to win the game, especially the way Heather was pitching. If we got their leadoff hitter out and make them work with one out, I thought that gave us the ability to get out of any inning where they might get runners on.”
Foust had another strong start. The junior limited Nimitz to a pair of hits while striking out 15 hitters. After inducing a pop out to open the game, Foust struck out eight in a row and 12 of the next 13 she faced.
“Heather pitched a great game,” Tumilty said. “Their leadoff is so fast and their two, four and five hitters have such dangerous potential.”
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