By Fred Solis
The Hutchinson Tribune
SALINA—At the end of the day, it was just a softball game, Andale-Garden Plain Coach Erin Carney said after the team defeated Clearwater 5-2 in the 4A state softball quarterfinals in Salina Monday to advance to the semifinals in Lawrence this week.
Except it wasn’t.
“Our team kind of got some devastating news a couple days ago,” Carney said, “but because of that situation they (team) were playing for something else.”
No one was more motivated than junior Emily Eck, whose cousin recently passed.
“I was doing it for him and focusing on what my uncle has taught me in the cage, and all the work I put in, and doing it for my teammates who have always been there for me,” Eck said.
Her feelings flowed into two triples that knocked in two runs for Andale-Garden Plain and helped them secure the victory. Her first three-bagger drove in Paige Stanhope in the top of the third inning for the game’s first run.
Clearwater evened the score in the bottom of the inning and then went up 2-1 in the fourth. With one out and two runners on, Clearwater was poised to cash in on some more runs. But Andale-Garden Plain got out of the jam on a pop fly that caught a Clearwater baserunner off base for a double play, their second of the game.
Andale-Garden Plain got the run back in the fifth on Coti Hiner’s double that scored Stanhope to even the score at 2-2.
After a quiet sixth inning, Andale-Garden Plain broke through with three runs in the top of the seventh on Eck’s second triple, Hiner’s sacrifice fly, and Rose Molitor’s single for a 5-2 lead.
“I knew she had a good rise. I just kind of watched the ball to my bat and hoped for the best,” Eck said of her day at the plate.
Andale-Garden Plain’s seventh-inning at-bat was highlighted by Brookly Sele’s 15-pitch battle. Down in the count 0-2, Sele fouled off pitch after pitch before finally working a walk. She later came home on Molitor’s hit.
“We had a lot of at-bats that we took down to several pitches, so we kind of tired her (Clearwater pitcher Trista Welty) out,” Carney said. “But we came in with a game plan, and we worked really hard to work on that game plan, and the girls executed it exactly like they should have.”
That game plan called for laying off Welty’s rise balls or “working on how to hit high pitches,” Carney said. “We’d seen her before in league so we kind of knew what to expect a little bit.”
Still, Welty registered nine strikeouts. But in the end, she walked four and gave up seven hits. Clearwater also left four runners on base.
In the final inning, Andale-Garden Plain pitcher Ryin Gibbens got two quick groundball outs before walking her first batter of the game. But she got fly ball to left to seal the victory.
Gibbens went the distance, striking out two and yielding just four hits. Andale-Garden Plain stranded seven baserunners in the game.
“Ryin did awesome,” Carney said. “Obviously, our defense behind her made some great plays to get us out of some jams, but Ryan has done extremely well this season.”
The game was also the third matchup of the season for the two ACTVL-IV rivals who shared the league title at the end of the season. Andale-Garden Plain and Clearwater split their doubleheader earlier in the season.
Now No. 6 Andale-Garden Plain (20-5) moves on to the semifinals in Lawrence against No. 7 Wamego (21-6) at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27, at KU’s Arrocha Ballpark. The other semifinal game features No. 1 Fort Scott (26-3) versus No. 4 Rock Creek (24-4) at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Winners of those games will meet for the championship at 6:45 p.m. on Friday, May 29. The third-place game is slated for 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 28.