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Lady Tigers thwart Harrisonville in district dress rehearsal
All season long, Nevada High School head softball coach Danny Penn has been preaching to his players — half of whom are freshmen — the importance of quality at-bats, especially once the postseason rolls around.
In a possible Class 4 District 7 preview against Harrisonville Wednesday afternoon at Bushwhacker Field, some of the more experienced Lady Tigers put into practice exactly what Penn has preached.
Nevada had a two-run lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, with senior Claire Pritchett, junior Kirstin Buck, and sophomore Skyler Burns due up to bat. It was the kind of situation that, when the season’s on the line in October, one more run could decide whether the team moves on or goes home. In fact, the Lady Tigers broke their mid-inning huddle with an in-unison shout of “Insurance!”
Pritchett worked a full-count and drew a leadoff walk.
Buck shot a single to left.
And Burns, after bunting the first two pitches she saw foul, slapped a double to right field, scoring Pritchett.
Nevada got the insurance run it wanted, and though it ultimately did not affect the outcome of this regular-season game — a 4-1 victory in favor of the Lady Tigers — the ABs that produced it were exactly the kinds Penn hopes to see out of all his hitters, regardless of class, come district time.
“We’re trying to make sure our younger players are seeing what a quality at-bat looks like. It doesn’t always mean it’s going to be a hit in the box score. A runner on first base is what we’re asking for there,” Penn said specifically of Pritchett’s leadoff walk. “That insurance run, it wasn’t the difference, but it’s going to help Peyton, it’s going to help our defense feel a little bit looser in the field and like they don’t have to be quite as perfect. So, that was big for us.”
Behind freshman ace Peyton Eaton, Nevada’s defense proceeded to retire Harrisonville in order to seal it in the seventh. Eaton faced 25 hitters in the game and got 12 of them to ground out — another high-quality performance that Penn would like to repeat in the postseason.
“Our pitching was really good today. Peyton Eaton did a really nice job of working ahead and being down in the zone. Ground balls turned into outs,” said Penn, whose starting pitcher allowed two hits and struck out three. “The more comfortable and confident she feels in the defense behind her, the more that she’s going to trust her stuff and understand she doesn’t have to throw the ball by everybody. If she hits her spots and she induces those ground balls, those are going to turn into outs. We had a lot of innings today where she didn’t throw 10 pitches in an inning because she got a lot of first and second-pitch outs. Defensively and on the pitching side of it, I really couldn’t ask for a whole lot more today.”
Nevada senior shortstop Bailey Ast was responsible for the majority of those ground-ball put-outs, including a double-play to end the top of the first frame with the help of freshman Caylee Holcomb at second base and Pritchett at first.
“We had a bad game against them last year. It was nice to come back and show them what we really are,” said Ast, who made up for last season’s 18-17 road loss to the Wildcats with a double and a run scored. “We just can’t get ahead of ourselves on the districts. This game is this game, and districts is a different thing.”
Ast hit the ball hard in her other two ABs, but Harrisonville’s defense made highlight-reel plays to keep her off the bases (and she wasn’t alone).
“We hit some balls hard. Put a little too much air under some of those, and they found gloves,” said Penn, who was even impressed with the quality in which Ast handled having potential base hits taken away from her. “First at-bat of the game, Bailey hits a rocker right to the third baseman. But she didn’t drop her head. She came back up and had two more good at-bats, and just not letting something early in the game carry over and affect you for the rest of the game.”
Buck certainly made the most of her three ABs, coming up a home run shy of the cycle. She led off the bottom of the second inning with a triple to right, then sprinted home when Harrisonville sent the ball toward its dugout instead of to its pitcher for the first run of the game.
In the next inning — after Ast doubled, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Kara Phillips — Buck belted a double to center, driving in Pritchett (who’d also doubled).
The Wildcats got on the board in the top of the sixth thanks to an RBI single, but those quality at-bats from Pritchett, Buck, and Burns in the home half of the frame made up for it.
“Credit to Claire and Bailey and those upperclassmen who are experienced and know what that means and are confident in their ability to do that: working through a tough AB and finding a way to get on base,” said Penn, whose team almost added another insurance run in the sixth when Buck was thrown out at the plate trying to score behind Pritchett. “We talked pregame about the importance of this being a district opponent and how a win today is going to help us when it comes to postseason seeding. We may see these guys again. And we want them to see Nevada on the bracket and think, ‘Oh, man, we didn’t play very well against them and they’re a good team.’”
NEVADA 13, SENECA 2
The Lady Tigers followed up Wednesday’s win with a 13-2 run-rule victory Thursday at Seneca.
Some familiar names led the way again, with Ast and Pritchett each collecting four hits and driving in three runs. Buck added a pair of hits — including that home run she missed out on the chance to hit to complete her cycle one day earlier. Burns also had three hits.
Eaton pitched all five innings in the circle, allowing two runs on two hits while striking out four.
With the back-to-back wins (four in a row counting the two shutouts on Saturday), the Lady Tigers are now 8-6 overall and 2-0 in Big 8 play. They will next host Holden (7-1) on Monday.