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Marcus drops East in 13 innings
BY Andrew Snyder Staff Writer
FRISCO -- It took the Flower Mound Marcus 13 innings to beat Plano East Wednesday in the opening game of a best-of-3 Region I Finals series, but good fortune finally came the Lady Marauders way in the form of a hitting streak that set them up for a 5-1 victory.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” said Christy Tumilty, Marcus head coach. “Plano East is a great team and we knew that it was going to be a matter of staying in it mentally as well as physically. As the game went on and on, the kids stepped up and made plays n on both sides for us.”
The Marcus scoring blitz began with a single from speedster KelVon Greer, who scored the winning run when Devon Wallace racked up a double in the next at-bat. After an interrupting out, Sarah Draheim notched another double for the Lady Marauders, scoring one, to set up Danielle Blocker’s base-clearing homer, which more than dispatched East and set the final score.
After 5 ½ innings of shutdown defense on both sides, the Lady Marauders were first to break onto the board when Heather Foust, the team’s pitcher, launched an RBI double that brought Greer, who had singled on, down the home stretch.
An out on the following at-bat ended the Lady Marauders scoring, leaving them with a temporary 1-0 lead. Temporary only because the Lady Panthers snapped back with an answering run on their turn to take up the bats. Two straight singles put freshmen Rachel Scott and Holly Kern on first and second before sophomore Alyssa Jones rocked a single of her own. But instead of loading the bases, the latter hit earned East its second out when the Lady Marauders infield ignored Jones to try a throw out at third, which they missed, only to catch Scott at home plate.
A wild pitch during sophomore Meg Newman’s at-bat brought in Kern and with a little extra time would have also scored Jones. But the call at the plate went in Marcus’ favor to stop the Lady Panthers from taking the lead. Defensive muscle regenerated for the rest of regulation, returning the game to a no run affair and forcing extra innings.
“For some reason,” said Karen Kalhoefer, East head coach. “Things just weren’t dropping for us.”
The top of the eighth saw Marcus’ next best opportunity to punish East, as Lady Marauders Kacie Hildreth, Hailey Winter and Wallace each notched a single to load the bases with one out. Two more chances didn’t prove enough, though, and East prevented disaster by gathering the last two outs. Lady Panthers senior Taylor Jones was still pitching strong, proven by her two strikeouts in the eighth.
Innings came and went with defensive playmaking, such as a perfect scoop and throw from Marcus’ Courtney Flanary and a doubly play from East that caught runners at first and third, returning the game to its roots.
The Lady Marauders kept up the defense when Winter managed a game-saving catch.
East senior Shelbee Young had just doubled to put runners on at second and third base only to have the win snatched away when Winter intercepted what would have been the perfect line drive from Jones. Defensive showstoppers such as that kept the game going long enough for Marcus’ eventual win.
“All this means is that the series is 1-0,” Kalhoefer said. “We’ve got to get back and refocus, but I’m proud of them for playing 13 innings and going eleven innings on Friday. That just shows a lot about this team.”
Game 2 is 7:30 p.m. Friday at Staley Middle School in Frisco.
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