Whiteland’s Debbie Hill delivers a pitch during Tuesday’s season opener against Center Grove.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
If Tuesday evening was any indication of what the high school softball season is going to look like in Johnson County this spring, then buckle up.
It’s already looking like a wild ride.
Down to its last few chances after squandering an early three-run lead, Whiteland conjured some late-inning magic in its season opener against visiting Center Grove, with a two-out, two-run double in the sixth by senior catcher Haley Wilkerson proving to be the decisive blow in a thrilling 7-6 triumph on a frigid late March evening.
The Trojans had won last year’s matchup by the same score. This one, billed as an early clash between the county’s two best teams, featured some typical early-season hiccups but lived up to the hype nonetheless.
Center Grove hurler Riley Henson, who had settled into a groove after a bumpy start, retired the first two hitters in the bottom of the sixth before Emma Piercy drew a two-out walk to give the Warriors some life. After a Josslyn Harbert single, Debbie Hill walked to load the bases, and Wilkerson then ripped the first pitch into deep left center, bringing Piercy and Harbert home with the tying and go-ahead runs.
“I knew it was going to be either me or Debbie to get the job done,” Wilkerson said. “I was just there to provide for the team when we needed it.”
Hill — who struck out 10 without a walk while scattering six hits in the pitching circle — then slammed the door shut by retiring the Trojans in order in the seventh.
Both teams did their best to take advantage of the cold weather (the wind chill was just above freezing throughout) in the early going, running the bases aggressively and forcing the other side to try making plays with cold hands.
That strategy paid dividends for the Trojans in the top of the first inning, when Hannah Haberstroh and Riley Janda reached on consecutive errors. Haberstroh scored on the second miscue, while Janda came in on an infield single from Payton Shimansky for an early 2-0 lead. Whiteland, however, answered right back in the bottom of the frame.
Piercy led off with a double down the left-field line, moved to third when Harbert reached on an error and then scored on a successful double steal. After Hill walked, Wilkerson dropped a single into left that plated Harbert with the tying run. Halle Nett then gave the Warriors the lead with an RBI single, and Tara Watson later popped a ball into shallow right that fell in and allowed Nett and Kiley Sullivan to come across for a 5-2 advantage.
The momentum abruptly shifted, though, when Whiteland ran itself out of a potentially big inning with runners on second and third and nobody out in the second. Wilkerson flied out to left, deep enough to score a run, but Harbert was called out for leaving third base early and the Trojans threw out the trailing runner at third for a bizarre triple play.
Warriors coach Katie Mitchell had the luxury of downplaying the importance of that moment after the fact.
”Every time you face a tough team, momentum shifts back and forth,” she said. “But I think that we have confidence in what we can do; just bringing that more consistently throughout the season is something that we’ll work on.”
The missed opportunity proved costly. Center Grove scored two runs in the top of the third when Ashlynn Wolff singled Haberstroh in and then scored on a two-out error, then tied it at 5-5 in the fourth when Maya Netter singled, stole second and third and came home on an errant throwout attempt.
The Trojans’ slow-burn rally continued in the fifth, when a two-out RBI single by Lex Warner brought courtesy runner Emma Wheatley in from second to put the visitors back on top by a run.
That lead could only hold for so long, however.
“They’re gritty,” Center Grove coach Alyssa Coleman said of the Warriors. “I’m proud of (our girls) for battling back, and we found ourselves in the middle, but we didn’t respect the game — and the game said no. We came in timid that first inning; I don’t even know how to explain it, because Riley was so consistent on the mound. … We as a team need to step up, and really respect the value of an out and not mess around.
Wolff had two hits for Center Grove, which didn’t get a ton of solid contact against Hill but took advantage of six Whiteland errors. Watson, Harbert and Wilkerson each collected two of the Warriors’ 10 hits.
Whiteland, with seven starters returning from a 15-win team, hopes to use Tuesday’s big comeback win as a springboard toward even better things this spring.
“This was the first game in a really long time that we’ve beat Center Grove, and we’ve never beat them since I was a part of the team,” Wilkerson said. “So it was really shocking, and I really loved it. I loved being a part of the team that was able to do it.”
