WEBB CITY, Mo. — Two days before the start of the Class 2 District 6 softball tournament, College Heights Christian (with McAuley Catholic) and Diamond ended in an 8-all draw in five innings of driving rain Thursday at Webb City High School.
College Heights took a 4-1 lead after three runs in the first and one in the second, Diamond went ahead 7-4 after pushing across six in the fourth, Diamond scored one in the fifth and College Heights scored two in the fourth and fifth before agreeing to call it a day.
At the end of the day, both teams came out winners in the sense that nobody got hurt and two good teams competed against each other two days before the start of the postseason.
“We talked earlier today about the pros and the cons of playing this game,” College Heights coach Mike Howard said. “The pros are that you’re playing a really good team that’s going to prepare you for districts. The cons are somebody gets hurt, and we definitely don’t want that going into districts.
“You know, it was just barely raining earlier in the day and so we thought we could come out here and play a little bit. I’m super proud of the way our girls came out and played with intensity from the very get-go. The girls were in it the whole entire time against a really good Diamond team. I’m just proud of our effort offensively, defensively … you take away one inning there and we have a really good game on our hands.”
“I feel like we both got good reps,” Diamond coach Kelsey Parrish said. “We both hit the ball well and I think going into districts it was a good game for both of us. Our district’s tough, so both teams needed as much confidence as possible … I think it just worked in our favor.”
The challenge of playing in driving rain conditions was especially felt Thursday by College Heights junior pitcher Maddy Colin and senior catcher Jayli Johnson and Diamond junior pitcher Caitlyn Suhrie and junior catcher Grace Frazier.
Colin and Suhrie combined for 14 walks over 10 half-innings, but they also combined to strike out 16 batters.
“It’s very, very difficult conditions to pitch in,” Howard said. “I wanted to get them to get the feel of pitching in this (weather). Maddy, she only had 18 walks the entire year and that goes to show how difficult it is to pitch in these types of conditions, especially against a really good hitting team. The umpire’s strike zone was pretty tight, so that makes it even more difficult. Hats off to her though for settling in and bearing down there at the end and limiting their runs.”
Parrish brought her experience working on getting her pitcher a dry softball from last Friday’s game against Mount Vernon at Neosho High School, when it rained for at least the first half of the third battle this season of the two top-ranked teams in Class 2.
“I thought both pitchers worked extremely hard and threw well,” Parrish said. “They couldn’t grip the ball well, so I was very proud of all four girls.”
College Heights’ Kloee Williamson led off the home first with an infield single, Johnson and Allie Stout each worked a walk, and they each scored a run to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead after one.
Williamson reached second on an error in the second and scored on a Colin RBI single.
Williamson led off the fourth with an infield single and scored on Johnson’s RBI triple. Johnson scored to cut the Cougars’ deficit to 7-6 after four.
Johnson delivered the final score in the fifth with a two-out, two-run double bringing home pinch runner Ava Lett and Williamson.
“I can’t say enough about our girls and their offense tonight,” Howard said. “How they hit the ball with timely hits scoring runs. We’re just super positive headed into districts right now.”
The Wildcats benefited from drawing four of their walks Thursday during their six-run fourth, including three straight walks with Frazier and Suhrie working consecutive bases-loaded walks for two of their six runs. Emilee Shallenburger hit a RBI single for the first run and Lauren Turner delivered a bases-clearing hit to close out the six runs.
Sara Roszell hit a RBI single in the second and Marrisa DeJager singled and came around to score the Wildcats’ final run in the fifth.
College Heights ends the regular season 18-5-1 and the fourth-seeded Cougars take on the fifth-seeded Pierce City in the district quarterfinals at 12:45 on Saturday at Spirit of ’76 Park in Mount Vernon.
Keep in mind Pierce City upended two of the top three seeds in last year’s district tournament, beating No. 3 seed Sarcoxie 12-0 in the quarters and No. 2 College Heights 7-5 in the semis before their 15-5 loss in the district championship against eventual state champion Diamond.
Diamond enters the postseason 25-9-1 and the second-seeded Wildcats play Lamar in the fourth and final game of the day at approximately 4:15 on Saturday.
Top-seeded and tournament host Mount Vernon and (8) Southwest open the day at 11 a.m. and they are followed by College Heights-Pierce City, (3) Sarcoxie vs. (6) East Newton at 2:30 and Diamond-Lamar.
Rain forced last year’s quarterfinals to be played on the all-turf surface in Neosho.
