Welcome to our new web site!

To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.

During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.

Harrisburg wins district softball championship

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 10/16/20

Harrisburg came back from an early three-run deficit with eight straight runs to defeat New Franklin 9-6 in the district championship on Thursday.

“I think we finally just clicked as a …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Harrisburg wins district softball championship

Posted

Harrisburg came back from an early three-run deficit with eight straight runs to defeat New Franklin 9-6 in the district championship on Thursday.

“I think we finally just clicked as a team,” said senior Katie Starbuck.

“We finally just hit the ball well, fielded well and played together as a team so much better than we have been.”

New Franklin scored two runs in the seventh inning and brought the tying run to the plate. With two outs, Harrisburg second baseman Bryanna Griggs fielded a ground ball and threw it to Starbuck, who stepped on second base to claim the district trophy.

“It meant so much,” Starbuck said. “We’ve been trying for this my entire high school career and this is the last season I can play with the girls I’ve been playing with my whole life. It just meant so much to all of us.”

Harrisburg trailed 4-1 in the middle of the third inning, but came back with singles from Hailey Emanuel, Starbuck, and Baylie Combs to pull within a run. With two outs, Halle Baden tied the game with an infield single.

New Franklin was in position to retake the lead when Abby Maupin and Alexia Sprick led off the fourth with back-to-back hits. A ground ball moved Maupin to third, but Harrisburg turned a 6-4-3 double play to escape the inning.

“That was the biggest play, and that’s something that you don’t see in fast pitch softball very often,” Harrisburg coach Steve Combs said. “Just a huge momentum shift there when they had us on the ropes a little bit.”

Griggs tripled to lead off the bottom of the fourth and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. Olivia Fischer gave Harrisburg a 6-4 lead with a two-out RBI single. Fischer was 2-3 at the plate and drove in a game-high three runs.

“I think we believed in ourselves,” she said about the team’s offensive effort.

“I think we just told ourselves, ‘let’s bear down, let’s just hit the ball, get the bat on the ball.’ And we did, we got some good hits tonight.”

The win gave Harrisburg its first district championship since 2012.

“It means the world,” Fischer said. “We’ve been playing together forever, so it was so fun to finally pull that off.”

Jessica Gardiner had a key at bat for Harrisburg in the sixth inning. New Franklin elected to intentionally walk Baden with two outs to face Gardiner with the bases loaded.

“I was super nervous,” Gardiner said. “I took some bad cuts in the beginning.

“I was like, I know we’re in the district championship here and I really want to do this for my team. It’s time to be disciplined.”

Gardiner’s double brought two runs across the plate to put Harrisburg ahead 9-4 and the Bulldogs held on for the win.

“It’s super great,” Gardiner said. “We’ve had a couple rough years for our program and last year we took a hard loss.

“We’re just super excited. We knew from day one that we wanted to be here on this day, winning with our team.”

Sprick, Carly Dorson, Sophia Held and Addy Salmon each had two hits for New Franklin. Dorson had an RBI single in the first inning and a leadoff double in the fifth. Salmon drove in two runs in the loss.

After the game, New Franklin coach Ross Dowell talked to his team about “the three or four little details it came down to.

"A play here or a play there and maybe they don’t score that one big inning there in the middle,” he said.

“We try to practice that way every day, some days we get that practice, some days we don’t. This senior class they got thrown to the wolves as freshmen and we’ve gotten better every year. We got to a district championship game and I think that’s a huge accomplishment for them.”

"We played with a lot of heart and never ever quit.  I'm going to miss these seniors They’ve meant a lot to me and our program, but we have a good core of young kids back to keep building on.  Hopefully getting a taste of playing for a district title will make us even more hungry next year."

For Harrisburg, Starbuck, Fischer, Baden, and Emanuel each had two hits. Starbuck stole three bases and scored three runs.

Baylie Combs allowed three earned runs on 13 hits and one walk. Harrisburg held New Franklin scoreless for three innings as a 4-1 deficit turned into a 9-4 lead.

“We fought for another few days of practice and another game and we’re super excited about that,” Steve Combs said. “Just some huge plays, just a team of gritty girls that battled and came away with a district championship.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here