SHELBY — Softball fans know games can change in a hurry, and
Tuesday's Hart/Shelby doubleheader was a signature example of that - in
both directions.
The Tigers answered a four-run Hart seventh
inning with five runs in the bottom half in game one to score a wild 9-8
victory, and then erased an 11-1 deficit to tie it at 12 late before
the Pirates came up with a walk-off hit to salvage the split, 13-12. The
second game was called after six innings due to darkness.
Shelby
(18-4, 2-4 West Michigan Conference Rivers) had a 2-1 lead for much of
the game after the teams traded runs in the first inning, and led 3-2
after each team scored once in the fifth. Then things started getting
wild.
The Pirates (11-9, 5-3 WMC Rivers) scored twice in the
sixth when Leah Walker drove in Reese Smith with a single. She then
advanced to second base on the play and stole third, allowing her to
score on a groundout by Elyssa Tanis to put Hart ahead 4-3. Shelby
bounced back to tie it up at 4 when Ciara Anzaldua scored on a wild
pitch.
It got even crazier in the seventh. With one out and a
runner on third base, the Tigers elected to intentionally walk two
batters in a row, avoiding Smith's big bat and loading the bases to set
up a force play anywhere. Instead, Sydney Bateson ripped a line drive
into the outfield that cleared the bases.
Hart's Leah Walker tries to tag out Shelby's Hali Hayes at first base during Tuesday's doubleheader in Shelby. The Tigers rallied to win game one, and Hart pulled out a game two win.
"I'll own that," Shelby coach Kevin Burmeister said. "That was situational.
We're shortening the game. We've got a force at home and we're out
clean. Their kid put a good swing on it and hit it to a perfect spot."
The Pirates added another run when a ball got to the backstop. It felt like an 8-4 lead was secure.
However,
Shelby roared back. The first three Tigers to bat reached base, two
Tigers after that drove in runs with groundouts - sandwiching a
run-scoring hit by Gabby LaFever - and when Jordan Wolting singled, Hart
coach Dean DeVries made the same decision Burmeister did to avoid his
opponent's best bat, walking Jayna Burmeister to load the bases.
Just
as in the top of the inning, the move didn't work out, and Emma Stovall
sent a hard ground ball up the middle for a hit, winning the game.
"Game one was a
wonderful high school softball game," DeVries said. "It was back and forth, one run
here, one run there. Then we threw a big punch in the top of the
seventh, and then they threw a bigger punch at the end."
Wolting
had two hits for the Tigers, and Walker had two for Hart - the only two
batters to get multiple hits in the game. Hali Hayes drove in two runs
for Shelby and Burmeister scored twice. Burmeister got the win, striking
out 17 batters and allowing five hits.
Game two saw Hart race
to an 11-1 lead by scoring four times in the first inning and seven in
the second. Smith started the scoring with a RBI single, and Kora
Hiddema added a two-run single in the first. Taking advantage of some
walks, the Pirates piled on in the second, and Tanis had the big hit, a
bases-loaded triple.
Shelby immediately answered with seven
runs itself in the top of the third, all coming after the first two
batters made outs. Burmeister sparked the rally with a triple and scored
on Stovall's double. Hayes, Stella Springer, Allie Stovall and Daniella
Zarraga had run-scoring hits in the inning too.
Shelby's Stella Springer (left) slides past Hart's Makenna Carrier for a run during Tuesday's doubleheader in Shelby.
The Tigers'
four-run fifth featured a two-run double by Emma Stovall, and umpires
ruled going into the sixth that it would be the last inning due to
darkness.
That gave Hart one last chance for heroics, and it
took advantage. With two outs, Makenna Carrier drew a walk and stole
second, and Caydence Bateson delivered the winning hit, a line drive to
right center field.
"She's been slapping for the last two
and a half years, and lately she's been saying, 'Can I keep my feet
still (instead)?'" DeVries said. "She does a normal swing, and she put a
few really
nice swings on the ball today, hitting the ball hard, line drives. I
told her, 'Heck yeah, you can keep swinging away if you
keep hitting the ball like that.'"
Bateson's hit was her
second of the game, and Carrier scored three runs. Smith got the win in
relief, allowing no earned runs in three innings while striking out
five.
"She battled on the
mound today," DeVries said of Smith. "She didn't have her best stuff. She was falling behind
quite a bit, but still was able to get outs when we needed her to."
Burmeister and Emma Stovall each got two hits, and Burmeister pitched 3 2/3 innings, allowing two runs and fanning seven.
While
not completing the sweep was a disappointment for the Tigers, coach
Burmeister emphasized the growth his team has made behind a young (no
seniors) and athletic roster. When he took the job, Shelby was coming
off a 2024 season in which it rarely was able to avoid mercy-rule
defeats, and now it is extremely competitive.
"We've got 12 girls that
can play," Burmeister said. "Every time that we get to play every game, every seven
Innings that we get to see is more experience than those juniors have seen...We've just
got to start making those winning plays."
Hart, meanwhile, is
adjusting to being "the hunted," DeVries said, after winning five
straight district championships. He relishes the role and believes it is
preparing the Pirates for the postseason.
"Now we
need to be able to compete when a team like that is trying to knock us
off, and they've been trying to do that," DeVries said. "These great games
are great for us. The rest of our season is great for us because we
always talk about being the best versions of ourselves at the end of the
season. That's what we're building towards."
