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6-run sixth, combined no-hitter gets Tigers past Dragons
Hopefully, Delane Gray remembered sometime between the end of Monday night's game and right now to look up who Kirk Gibson is.
A comparison to Gray's pinch-hit, run scoring single to Gibson's 1988 World Series home run was brought up during a Chanute Class 4A Regional Tournament game at Don Hewett Field. The second-seeded Tigers (16-3) defeated rival Pittsburg, 6-0, in a game much, much closer than the score indicated.
After five innings, there was no score. The Tigers had several chances to get on the board. They had a runner on in the first, two on walks in the second, two on singles with one out in the third, one on via error in the fourth, and the leadoff batter on in the fifth.
And nothing to shot for any of that. And while Fort Scott head coach Alvin Metcalf was asking himself why the Tigers couldn't seem to get a timely hit, his players figured it out themselves.
"I wasn't really worried," Metcalf said. "But I kept asking myself, 'Why aren't we hitting the ball?' And the girls said, 'We're wanting to hit it too bad.' We had to become more patient and let the ball come to us instead of going to chase it."
Sophomore Kyenne Wade started started strong inside the pitching circle, striking out the side in the top of the first.
Wade pitched the first 4 innings, walking 1 and striking out 9. But she got a little shaky toward the end of her outing, hitting 3 batters in the last 2 innings.
Metcalf decided to change pitchers, putting freshman Hannah Geneva in the circle for the top of the sixth. She got a groundout and two strikeouts to keep the Dragons off the board.
Geneva also led off the sixth with a double to left. Bailie Brown was sent in as a courtesy runner and advanced to third on a groundout. With one out, Wade got the Tigers' first run home with a double to center to score Brown.
Then Gray came up. She had torn a hamstring muscle when the Tigers played at Labette County May 1 and hadn't played since. But she was ready to pinch hit if needed and Metcalf sent her up.
Gray lined a single to right, which brought in Wade to make it 2-0. Then Abby Denton, who started in Gray's place, was re-entered to run for her.
It was assistant coach David Brown who made the comparison to Gibson, who hit a game-winning home run in game one of the 1988 World Series as a pinch hitter even though he had a leg injury so bad he could barely walk.
"I told her after the fifth inning, 'You're going to bat. I don't know where, but you're going in'," Metcalf said. "She said. 'I'm ready. I've been wanting to play all night.'"
The rallied continued with Shelby Maycumber's single to center and Katie Gorman's single to right that loaded the bases for senior Hannah Tourtillott, who cleared them with her first triple of the season. Riley Brown's 2-out single to center scored Tourtillott to complete the rally.
Geneva (10-1) struck out the side in the top of the seventh.
Tourtillott, Gorman, Riley Brown and Shelby Maycumber had 2 hits each for the Tigers, who will face Girard (13-4) in Wednesday's 4:45 semifinal at Chanute. The teams split a doubleheader in Fort Scott on April 30.
For results of other games in the Regional, see "Scoreboard" on page 9.