GREENFIELD — Friday’s softball battle between Hoosier Heritage Conference and Hancock County rivals Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central had a little bit of everything.
There were 27 runs, 26 walks, 19 hits, five errors, four home runs, three lead changes and a big play at the plate in a three-plus hour ballgame at Greenfield-Central High School.
Mt. Vernon prevailed 14-13, improving to 5-8 overall and 3-2 in the HHC. Greenfield-Central dropped to 8-5 and 0-2.
“It was a ride on an emotional rollercoaster,” Mt. Vernon head coach Veronica Kirby said. “All these ups and downs and you have to figure out how to handle it. This is a game of failure and you have to learn how to handle that failure and move on from that. We had to do that a lot (Friday). It was a great win and we fought hard for it. We all fought. They fought, too. There was a lot going on.”
Up 14-13 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Mt. Vernon prevented the game-tying run on a relay throw to the plate after G-C’s Savvanna Riall had doubled.
Centerfielder Ainsley Baer threw to second baseman Shelby Rakosky, who threw to catcher Mikayla Oger, who tagged out the G-C baserunner for the final out in the sixth, keeping the Marauders 14-13 lead safe.
Both teams went down in order, for the only time the entire game, in the seventh inning.
“A few plays before that we were talking about how we had to limit their bases, and cut balls off and getting to the right spots, and all of them have great arms,” Kirby said.
Twelve of Mt. Vernon’s 14 runs came in two innings. A five-run second, on only one hit — there were four walks and two hit batsmen — gave the Marauders a 5-2 lead.
Greenfield-Central got the lead back with a four-run fourth inning. Riall and Leilani Forshey each had two-run home runs in the frame. For Forshey it was her seventh of the season.
Trailing 8-5, Mt. Vernon scored seven times in the fifth. Again, they benefited from walks, drawing seven in the inning. The big hit came off the bat of Graci Hines, who delivered a grand slam to give Mt. Vernon a 10-8 lead.
Greenfield-Central battled back. They scored twice in the fifth to cut it to 12-10. Mt. Vernon extended the lead to 14-10 in the six, again taking advantage of three walks.
Of the 26 walks, 17 came from Greenfield-Central pitching.
The Cougars had a rally going in the sixth.
Makenna Rankins opened the sixth with a solo home run, G-C’s third long ball of the game.
Addie Heacox reached on an error and Alyssa Greenwalt doubled to put runners on second and third base. Allison Hornaday followed with an RBI-single to cut it to 14-12. LeiLeanna Faitele walked, and with two out Riall drove a double to right-centerfield. It scored Hornaday but the relay throw was right on time to end the inning.
Riall had four of Greenfield-Central’s 11 hits.
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Mt. Vernon 14, Greenfield-Central 13
Mt. Vernon (5-8, 3-2);050;072;0—;14;8;4
Greenfield-Central (8-5, 0-2);220;423;0—;13;11;1
Graci Hines, Shelby Rakosky (4), Aubrey Lowe (4) and Mikayla Oger; Ailea Dowdy, Madysen Herbert (2), Addie Heacox (2), Dowdy (5) and LeiLeanna Faitele. 2B: MV – Emma Jenkins. G-C: Alyssa Greenwalt, Savvanna Riall. HR: MV – Hines (1). G-C – Riall (3), Leilani Forshey (7), Makenna Rankins (1). WP: Lowe (1-3). LP: Heacox (4-2).
