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Top five sports stories of the year: No. 3
Softball: Safe House: Plano East tops Flower Mound in controversial eight-inning game
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
DENTON -- With two on and one out in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tied regional quarterfinal matchup against Plano East, Flower Mound's Emilee Burkhardt laced a single to center field.
Only Flower Mound didn't win Saturday.
Moments after ruling Powell safe, the home plate umpire called her out on appeal, saying Powell never touched the plate. East got out of the inning and took advantage of its new life in the top of the eighth when junior Sarah Morales singled home the winning run for a 3-2 victory.
The one-game series began Friday, but was postponed because of rain with Flower Mound leading, 2-0, in the top of the fourth.
"I'm so proud of the girls," said Karen Kalhoefer, East head coach. "I told them it was the man above [Friday] saying timeout. We wanted the series, so we can have a mini-game. They won the first half of the game, now lets win the second half. That was our approach. It was a new day. We came out, scored runs and [senior Holly Kern] pitched well, and the defense backed her up."
For Flower Mound, a tragic week that included the death of a players' father in an automobile accident, came to a heartbreaking close.
"The Lord has been good to us this year and during this trying time right now," said Mark Larriba, Flower Mound head coach. "It's been a tough week and an emotional week with everything we were going through. I told the girls after that sometimes you can't explain things. Life isn't fair and softball is just like life. As long as you give maximum effort and attitude that's all you have control over and that's what we gave."
If losing in extra innings wasn't enough, the Lady Jaguars had to cope with the result after believing they had won moments earlier.
"She was safe, but the umpire said she missed the plate," Larriba said. "You know ... good for Plano East. They're a good team. They're going to say [Powell] missed the plate. We're going to say she touched it. It's just tough to have the umpires decide the game.
"The umpire said it was protocol to call safe right away. I'm not an expert of the rules and maybe I need to know them more, but usually they hesitate for a while to let you know there wasn't a tag. But he called safe right off the bat." LISD officials investigated an appeal following the game, but were told they couldn't challenge a judgment call.
"He called safe and I was looking at him saying 'she never touched the plate,'" Kalhoefer said. "I think if [the umpire] goes back on it, he'll look at it and he never should have called it. It should have been a no-call. But she didn't touch the plate. It was a great throw and a great effort on the slide, but I told [junior catcher K.K. Stevens] to tag her.
"Him calling her safe was a little different, but I'll take it."
The call overshadowed the play of East senior center fielder Chandler Cink, who fired a bullet home on Burkhardt's single to put the Lady Panthers in position to record the out.
"I think it took something out of Flower Mound," Kalhoefer said. "Just look at all the emotions of thinking you won and now you're upset. That's a lot of emotion, especially for teenage girls, and then all the other stuff they've been going through.
"That's a tough thing."
The victory snaps a six-game losing streak for the Lady Panthers against the Lady Jaguars, who swept East in District 8-5A each of the past two seasons and bounced them from the playoffs in 2010.
"We wanted to show Flower Mound and their fans the real Plano East," Kalhoefer said. "The team that plays good defense, doesn't make errors and hits the ball well. That's what we did the last four innings today."
The clubs managed to pack plenty of drama into Saturday's four-plus innings.
After cutting the lead in half in the top of the fourth, the Lady Panthers had runners at first and third with one out in the fifth, but Flower Mound pitcher Annelise Oswalt fanned consecutive batters to get out unscathed.
However, East evened the score one inning later off a pair of Flower Mound errors.
The first allowed the leadoff runner to reach and then Stevens hit a single to put runners at the corners. The Lady Panthers stole second and the Lady Jaguars cutoff play went awry, allowing senior Rachel Scott to tie the game, 2-2. Morales followed with a rocket up the middle that Oswalt was able to knock down to retire the batter at first. The Lady Panthers had two on with one out in the seventh as well, but Oswalt got out of the jam.
In the sixth, the Lady Jaguars loaded the bases with two outs, but Kern got Flower Mound's Taylor Nabors to fly out. Kern came up big at the plate as well, opening the eighth with a single to set up Morales' winning hit and a 3-2 East victory.
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