For the Daily Journal
HOPE
Trailing by three runs with one out in the top of the seventh, Edinburgh was two outs away from falling two games behind Hauser in the Mid-Hoosier Conference softball race.
Sidney Beier and the Lancers didn’t want to let it happen.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryBeier’s two-run double sparked a five-run seventh that gave Class A No. 6 Edinburgh the lead, and the Lancers retired the Class A No. 9 Jets in the bottom of the inning to claim a 7-5 victory and salvage a split in the early-season series.
The Lancers (2-1, 1-1) did not face Jets ace Tessa Sims as they did in Thursday’s 5-1 Hauser win at Edinburgh. The Indiana State recruit had shoulder surgery last summer, and her father and coach, Craig Sims, is taking it easy with her early in the season.
Instead, the Lancers saw Hunter Crain. Crain allowed only two runs and three hits through six innings before running into trouble in the seventh.
Crain walked Morgan Calhoun to lead off the inning, and Kaitlyn Bailey reached on an infield single. The Jets (2-2, 1-1) got the lead runner at third when Maddi Clark grounded to short, but then Beier stepped to the plate and delivered a two-run double to left to cut the lead to 5-4.
“My mindset was just to get a solid base hit,” Beier said. “We didn’t really care who was pitching. We just wanted to come out here and hit the ball and play our game. Every time we play them it’s always a competitive game.”
Beier went to third on a passed ball and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly to right by Emma Wade. Then with two out and nobody on, Vanessa McManaway singled, and Grace Joiner smacked an RBI double to the center-field fence.
After a walk to Paige Burton, Gracie Long delivered an RBI single to make it 7-5.
“They finally started to make adjustments in the box, and they started to get smart,” Edinburgh coach Stephen Clark said. “They came out flat and gave (Hauser) a couple unearned runs, but I think the positive of the whole thing is the way they were able to turn it around at the end of the game.”
The Lancers got on the board in the first when Bailey walked, stole second and scored on a single by Beier. Hauser took advantage of a pair of Edinburgh errors to score three runs in the bottom of the first and added a run in the second to take a 4-1 lead.
The Lancers manufactured a run in the third when Bailey reached on a one-out infield single, took second on a wild pitch and third on a passed ball and scored on a Beier groundout. The Jets got the run back in the fifth, but couldn’t hold the lead in the seventh.
Bailey finished 2 for 3, and Beier went 2 for 4 with four RBIs for Edinburgh. Maddi Clark allowed nine hits and struck out 10.