By Mark Carpenter-
For the third consecutive season, Coach Doug McFarland and the Peebles Lady Indians will make an appearance in the Southeast District Division IV softball district championship game, after rolling past the Eastern Pike Lady Eagles in the district semis on May 14 at Rio Grande University. The Lady Indians were in the district title games in 2017 and 2018, falling to Fairfield and Portsmouth Clay, and are hoping the third time is a charm as they will be back at Rio on Saturday, May 18 to face Eastern Meigs for the right to advance to the regional tournament in Pickerington.
The win over Eastern Pike was a struggle for awhile, but the big bats of the Peebles squad scored eight runs in their final two at-bats to pull away for their 20th win of the spring against just two defeats. Madison Pierce was again the winning pitcher for the Lady Indians, going the distance and striking out 15 Lady Eagles of the 21 outs she recorded.
“We thought we had a good shot tonight,” said Coach McFarland after the win. “I thought our kids battled every inning at the plate and we had one bad inning on defense where we did some things we don’t usually do. We’ve worked hard the last couple of days and Madison had another great day, especially at the plate. Every kid we sent up there put the ball in play and that’s how we keep pressure on the defense.”
“We did a little bit of everything well today and we got the win.”
The Peebles offense got off to a quick start on Tuesday, picking up three runs in the top of the first inning. With one out, Marissa Moore doubled down the left field line and came in to score on a base hit by Pierce, who stole second, went to third on a passed ball, and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by battery mate Kylie Sims. Christian Reed followed with a two-out walk, moved up on a Hope Brown single, then scored on an RBI base hit by second baseman Kyndell Lloyd that made it a quick 3-0.
After Pierce retired the Lady Eagles in order in the bottom of the first, the Peebles offense added one more in their half of the second when after the first two hitters were retired, Moore drew a walk and came around to score when Pierce drove a three-base hit to left center to make it 4-0. The Peebles lead ballooned to five in the top of the third after Reed led off with a walk, was sacrificed to second by Brown, and scored on another RBI base hit by Lloyd,
Pierce dominated the Eastern bats for six of her seven inning son the mound, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the third. After the first two hitters struck out, the Lady Eagles strung together four consecutive base hits to score three runs and narrow the Peebles advantage to a mere two runs, but that was all she wrote on the day as far as Eastern crossing the plate as after the third, Pierce retired 12 of the final 13 hitters, nine of those via the strikeout.
The Lady Indians added one more in the top of the fourth, with Avery Storer being hit by a pitch, stealing second and third, and scoring on a Moore sacrifice fly to left. Peebles made it 7-3 in their half of the fifth, with Reed drawing another free pass and coming home later in the inning on an Eastern error.
With the contest still a little closer than expected, the Lady Indians removed all doubt of the final outcome when they came to the dish for their sixth at-bat of the day, scoring four times with only one base hit, that a two-run single by Pierce. Eastern pitching issued three walks and hit two batters as Peebles stretched their advantage to 11-3.
The Lady Indians finished off a big offensive day in the top of the seventh with four more runs, getting a big two-run single from Jerilin Toller and again taking advantage of Eastern wildness from the center circle. With the temperatures dropping and daylight dimming, the Lady Indians were just three outs away for the district finals and Pierce got those final three, a ground out to second, a strikeout, and a comebacker to the mound, sealing the deal on a district semi-final triumph.
The victorious Lady Indians banged out 11 hits in the win, with Pierce helping her own cause by going 3 for 3 and driving home four runs. Kyndell Lloyd was 2 for 4 and drove home three, while Jerilin Toller also had three “ribeye steaks”. Christian Reed spent all day on the basepaths, crossing the plate four times in the win.
The Lady Indians now turn their attention to another group of Lady Eagles, these from Eastern Meigs High School as the two will meet at Rio Grande on Saturday at 11 a.m. with a trip to the regional tourney on the line. Eastern Meigs defeated Paint Valley 8-2 to earn their trip to the district title game.
“I thought Meigs looked pretty good defensively tonight,” said Coach McFarland. “We will have to work on adjusting to their pitcher’s speed and come out ready to play and get over that district championship hurdle.”
Peebles
311 114 4 —15
Eastern Pike
003 000 0 —3
Peebles Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Short 3-2-0-0, Moore 3-3-1-1, Pierce 3-2-3-4, Sims 3-1-1-1, Reed 1-4-1-1, Brown 3-1-1-1, Lloyd 4-0-2-3, Toller 3-0-1-3, Storer 4-2-1-0, Team 27-15-11-13.
Extra-Base Hits: Moore 2B, Pierce 3B
E. Pike Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Hatfield 3-1-1-0, Southworth 3-1-1-0, Compton 3-0-2-2, Carroll 3-0-0-0, Adkins 3-0-0-0, Dixon 3-0-0-0, Newsome 3-0-0-0, Greene 3-0-0-0, Tomlinson 2-0-1-0, McDaniel 0-1-0-0, Team 26-3-5-2.
Extra-Base Hits: Compton 3B
E. Pike Pitching:
Tomlinson (L) 6.3 IP, 10 H, 14 R, 13 ER, 11 BB, 0 K
Hatfield 0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Peebles Pitching:
Pierce (W) 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 15 K
