Whiteland and Greenwood split a pair of Mid-State Conference softball games Tuesday and Wednesday, but the bizarre manner in which the games played out was arguably more noteworthy than the results themselves.
The Woodmen took the first game, a wild 19-17 affair that was suspended after six innings due to darkness Tuesday and concluded with a three-up, three-down top half of the seventh inning Wednesday. In the second game, the Warriors’ Debbie Hill outpitched Taylor Dick — barely — in a 4-2 Whiteland win.
Wednesday’s festivities began with 1998 Miss Softball Jaime Rasmussen throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for Whiteland — a perfect strike. Perhaps it inspired Hill and Dick, as they turned in pitching performances that made the second game a complete 180 from the first.
Hill struck out 14 Woodmen, including six straight during one stretch, and worked her way out of a couple of jams while also driving in two runs that proved to be the difference-makers in a three-run Whiteland fifth inning.
Dick, after retiring the Warriors in order in the seventh inning of the first game to nail down that win, scattered seven hits in the second game. Two unearned runs during that key fifth inning proved to be the difference.
“I started hitting my spots more,” Hill said of her success after a shaky first inning in which she had to throw 33 pitches and allowed a run and a pair of hits. “I was working with my catcher (Haley Wilkerson) figuring out what my spins were doing.”
After three of Greenwood’s first four batters reached base, Hill struck out the next six Woodmen and 11 of 14. She struck out the side in the second and fourth innings.
“She worked her spins really well,” Whiteland coach Katie Mitchell said of Hill. “She trusts her catcher and her defense as well.”
Whiteland finally pieced a rally together in the fifth inning. Wilkerson worked a walk, then Macy Cornelius reached second base on an outfield error, which moved Wilkerson to third. Jordan Smith hit a bloop single to right field, scoring Wilkerson, and Hill followed with a double to the right-center field gap, scoring Cornelius and Smith.
Greenwood (2-1) had a chance to cut into the deficit in the sixth when Courtney Hankenhoff and Dick led off the inning with a single and double, respectively, putting runners on second and third with no one out. But Hill struck out the next two batters, and after Samantha Garrett walked, Dominica Wheatley hit into a fielder’s choice to end the threat.
“Over half our team is freshmen and sophomores, which means we’ve never had a season with them,” Greenwood coach Greg Norwood said. “We’re still learning to be comfortable with each other. It’s okay to make a mistake; just don’t make two mistakes and compound the original mistake.”
Hankenhoff, Dick and Katelyn Berger each went 2 for 3 for Greenwood in the second game, and Hankenhoff and Dick both contributed doubles. Hankenhoff’s seventh-inning RBI double closed the gap to 4-2, but Hill got Dick to fly out to center field to end the game.
Smith and No. 9 hitter Josslynn Harbert each went 2 for 3 for Whiteland (1-2).
In the first game, Whiteland led 13-5 in the middle of the fourth inning, but Greenwood scored five times in the fourth and exploded for eight more runs in the fifth to take an 18-14 lead. The Warriors responded with three sixth-inning runs to make it 18-17, but the Woodmen added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning.
When play resumed Wednesday, Dick struck out Emma Piercy and Ava Smith, and Tara Watson’s flyout to center field ended it.
Kiley Hankenhoff and Garrett homered for Greenwood in the first game. Hankenhoff went 3 for 4 and drove in four runs, and Wheatley went 4 for 5 with three RBIs. Dick went 3 for 5 with two RBIs, and Courtney Hankenhoff and Berger each went 2 for 3.
Harbert drove in four runs in the first game for Whiteland while going 3 for 3 with two doubles. Hill homered and drove in a pair of runs, and Smith hit two homers and drove in five while going 3 for 4.
The Woodmen host Pike on Friday, while the Warriors play today at Franklin Central.
