COLLINSVILLE – One big inning.
For O’Fallon, that’s all it took. One big inning.
A seven-run top of the third was more than enough to give the Panthers a 9-5 win over Edwardsville Wednesday afternoon in an IHSA Class 4A Normal Community Sectional softball game at Collinsville Sports Complex. The win sent the Panthers (21-7) into Saturday morning’s sectional final game at Normal Community against Normal West, who eliminated East Moline United 5-1 Tuesday; the winner plays Monday afternoon against the Lockport Township Sectional winner in the Normal Supersectional at Illinois State for the right to go to next weekend’s Class 4A state semifinals. The Tigers were eliminated at 28-6.
“It just seemed to find us where we weren’t,” said Tiger coach Lori Blade of the Panthers’ big inning; O’Fallon had three two-run doubles in the third off Jordan Garella and Jordyn Henricks that helped them to their seven-run outburst. “It was just one of those innings where we didn’t have many plays to be made; it was just good hits and hats off to them.
“They were just a little bit better than we were today and especially in the one inning. Unfortunately, in this game, that’s all it takes sometimes. I was proud of our kids for battling back; that’s a tough way to end it…Jordan (Garella) threw as well as she could today. I was really pleased with (Henricks) coming in and doing her job.”
“We scored a lot the previous time we played them,” said Panther pitcher Addison Barnouski, “but our hitting was spot-on today. We strung our hits together.
“It took a lot off my shoulders (the seven-run third). It felt a lot better to have seven runs and be so far ahead of them and have a little (breathing room).”
Edwardsville jumped out ahead of the Panthers in the bottom of the second when Anna Burke drew a one-out walk and Allison Loehr doubled to put runners at second and third. Emma Lewis grounded to short to bring home Burke and a Garella single drove in Loehr to put the Tigers up 2-0.
In the third, though, Katie Moore walked to open the inning, but with one out, Allison Underwood and Barnouski each singled to load the bases. Ginger Huskey then found an opening and doubled in Moore and Underwood to tie the game at 2-2; Caroline Keller then reached on a fielder’s choice to put runners at the corners and score Barnouski to put O’Fallon ahead.
Jordan DeRemer grounded to third for the second out, Keller advancing to second; Nikole Patterson then doubled in Huskey and Keller to extend the Panther lead to 5-2 and prompt Blade to lift Garella in favor of Henricks. “I told the kids maybe this was me being loyal to a fault today and waiting a little bit too long to make the change,” Blade said about the decision to go to Henricks. “We hung a few (pitches); that’s part of the game, no different than what Addison did and we smacked a couple.
“It was her (Garella’s) third time seeing them and she’s not a dominating pitcher; she does her job, and today, I just should have pulled the trigger.”
Henricks walked Cassie Brown to put two runners on, and Moore responded with another two-run double to up the O’Fallon lead to 7-2 before Henricks retired Courtney Keller to end the inning. Moore drove in two more runs in the fifth with another double, DeRemer and Patterson coming in to score to increase the lead to 9-2.
Edwardsville got a run back in the sixth when Rachel Anderson singled to open the inning and came around to score when the throw to get her went into the right-field corner, then pulled to 9-5 in the seventh when Sarah Hangsleben singled in Taryn Brown and Jordan Corby with two out, but Hangsleben was thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit to end the game.
Corby and and Loher each had two hits for the Tigers, while Hangsleben was 1-for-4 with two RBIs, Anderson 1-for-4 with a run scored, Garella 1-for-1 with a RBI and Henricks and Brown also had hits for Edwardsville. Garella took the loss, giving up six earned runs on seven hits while Henricks gave up two earned runs on three hits and struck out one. Barnouski conceded four earned runs on nine hits while fanning two on the day.
