GREENFIELD — After an evening of playing catch-up, Greenfield-Central made sure Yorktown wouldn’t have another chance to take the lead.
In their final at-bat, the host Cougars rallied for three runs to defeat Yorktown, 8-7, in a Hoosier Heritage Conference battle between two state-ranked softball teams on Wednesday.
Greenfield-Central, ranked No. 15 in Class 4A, won its second HHC game in as many nights. The Cougars defeated Shelbyville, 9-6, on Tuesday. The Cougars are 12-2 overall and 2-1 in league play. Yorktown, ranked No. 15 in Class 3A, dropped to 9-2 and 1-2 in the conference.
“We’ve battled through most of our games and battling back makes us stronger,” sophomore third baseman Hannah Holden said.
Holden had quite a battle in her final at-bat, too.
Down 7-6 with one out and runners at second and third, she laid down a beauty of a squeeze bunt.
Yorktown pitcher Kaylyn Coahran fielded the ball, but her throw home was wild. Pinch-runner Morgan Hornaday scored from third and Macy Francis was able to come all the way around from second with the winning run.
Earlier in the at-bat, Holden had missed the squeeze signal from coach Jason Stewart. Hornaday had to hustle to get back safely to third base.
“The object there was to get the ball away from the plate,” Stewart said. “Hannah did a nice job of getting the bunt down. That was a big play.
“To her credit, I chewed her out (when she missed the sign), but she refocused and got it done.”
“I didn’t let it get to me,” Holden said. “When I got the next signal I was going to lay it down.”
Yorktown jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one-half inning. The Cougars scored two in their half of the first, but the Tigers edged a little further away with two runs in the fourth.
Greenfield-Central trailed 5-3 going into the fifth inning, but had the heart of its order up in 3-4-5 hitters, Sam Kihega, Lexi Rankin and Emily Francis. They went single, double, single to tie the game 5-5.
The Tigers quickly responded. Their first four hitters hit singles in the sixth to give them a 7-5 lead.
With the same trio coming to plate to start the seventh, the Cougars felt good about their chances.
“All three of them, even when they made outs tonight, they hit the ball hard,” Stewart said. “Sam hit two missiles that got caught. Lexi has been swinging the bat well and Emily flat killed it tonight.
“It’s hard to string that many hits together against a good pitcher, but that’s what we did. Realistically to get back in a game like that, you hope somebody gets on and somebody hits one out, but to have four or five good at-bats in a row, that’s pretty darn impressive.”
To start the seventh, Kihega hit a line shot to right for an out. Rankin worked a walk and Emily Francis doubled to left field. She was lifted for Hornaday. Macy Francis followed with an RBI-single to center field to score Rankin and moved to second with a stolen base.
Holden followed with the game-winning bunt.
“I’m pretty confident in the whole lineup and feel we can all pull through when we need to,” Emily Francis said. “With Sam being a really good hitter and Lexi being a really good hitter, I was confident in the people in front of me and I was confident with the ones behind to back me up and get Morgan in when she ran for me.”
Emily Francis went 3-for-3 with three RBIs. She had a two-run single in the first inning to go with the RBI-hit that tied the game in the fifth.
“That’s a very big win against a very good team,” Stewart added. “We knew we were going to have to be at our best tonight to get that done. To be honest, we weren’t. We had some miscues and stuff we did wrong, but when we needed girls to come up big, late, they did.”
The big conference games continue for the Cougars. They play at Mt. Vernon on Friday. The Marauders are 10-1 overall and 1-1 in the HHC.
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4A No. 15 Greenfield-Central 8, 3A No. 15 Yorktown 7
Y (9-2, 1-2);300;202;0;—;7;10;3
G-C (12-2, 2-1);200;120;3;—;8;9;2
WP: Macy Fultz (4-1). LP: Kaylyn Coahran (6-2).
2B: Ellie Ewald, Lexi Rankin, Emily Francis (G-C). RBI: Emily Francis 3, Macy Francis, Hannah Holden (G-C); Ainsley Phillips 3, Skyler Davis 2, Savannah Baker (Y).
Notable: Emily Francis 3-for-3 2B, 3 RBI, Kensie Bradley 2-for-4, Lexi Rankin 1-for-1 2 BB, 2 R, Sam Kihega 1-for-3 2 R (G-C)
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