UT can't complete softball sweep
The Senior Day celebration might have carried on a little too long for United Township.
After winning the opening game 8-2, United Township surrendered a pair of unearned runs in the first inning of Game 2, then Quincy’s Mackenzi Fairley led off the 11th inning with a home run that lifted the Blue Devils to a 3-2 win and a doubleheader split Saturday in the Western Big Six Conference finale for each team.
“I guess we were too wrapped up in Senior Day stuff after the first game,” said UT senior pitcher Alison DeVilder, who lost a pitching duel with Fairley in the second game. “We were not ready for the transition from fun to get back in it.”
Fairley and DeVilder practically matched each other’s pitching line in the 11-inning battle. Each allowed six hits and one earned run, while DeVilder’s 13-strikeout total was one more than Fairley, and Fairley issued the lone walk.
Fairley provided most of Quincy’s offense, as well. She went 3-for-5 in the second game and scored the first and last runs. The big hit was her home run to left-center field to lead off the top of the 11th.
“I was really just concentrating on getting a base hit,” she said. “I have been working on getting some lift on the ball, and I did that time. I hit it on the sweet spot. It was right in the middle.”
Fairley also got the Blue Devils (8-14, 2-8 conference) jump-started in the first inning of the second game.
She led off with an infield hit, then Quincy scored two runs on Stephanie Schwartz’s sacrifice bunt.
The throw to Kelsey Winter, who was covering second base, glanced off her glove and into foul territory. Right fielder Breanna LaFerrara chased down the ball and elected to try to throw out Schwartz at second base as Fairley rounded third. LaFerrara’s throw got away, though, and went into left field, and Schwartz circled the bases.
“If we make a play in the first inning, they probably don’t score (in the game),” Panthers coach John Alonzo said. “They got two runs on a sacrifice bunt.”
The Panthers pulled even with single runs in the second and fifth. Haylee Krack led off the second with her third triple of the day and scored on DeVilder’s groundout. Alyssa Bush scored the other run when she walked with two outs in the fifth, stole second base and scored when Andrea Dreher’s hard shot to shortstop got past Courtney Sutherland for an error.
Offense was no problem in Game 1 for the Panthers (12-13, 4-6). Krack, a freshman catcher, had the hot bat. She was 3-for-4 with two triples, and each of her hits drove in two runs.
Krack gave UT a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when she followed one-out walks to Dreher and Courtney Ledezma with a triple into the gap in left-center field. DeVilder followed with a double, and she scored on Elizabeth Dooley’s single.
Krack drove in two more runs with a two-out triple in the second inning for a 6-0 lead. Quincy pulled within 6-2 on a pair of runs off reliever Jamie Coultas in the sixth inning, but Krack delivered a two-run single in the bottom half to increase the advantage back to six.
“I haven’t been really hitting lately,” Krack said. “I saw the ball and hit it today.”
United Township and Quincy will meet again May 20 in the first round of the Class 4A Moline Regional.
Jon Gremmels can be contacted at (563) 383-2294 or at jgremmels@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qcvarsity.com.