Softball: Lawrence edges Gardiner in 10 innings

FAIRFIELD — A marathon game was probably not the start the Lawrence softball team wanted to a marathon week.

But that marathon game came with the biggest win of the season thus far for the Bulldogs.

Thanks to a two-run double in the bottom of the 10th inning from third baseman Maylie Knox, Lawrence beat defending Class B champion Gardiner 8-7 on Monday afternoon.

“It was just back and forth,” said Knox, a junior. “I think at one point, we were just getting mad over the fact that we were going in and out, and I was getting mad that after going (0 for 3) and in those last two at-bats, I just had to go up there and do my job.”

Monday was the beginning of a stretch of four games in five days for the Bulldogs (5-2). It was also a nice bounce-back game, after dropping a 5-2 decision to B North rival Nokomis on Friday.

Up 4-1 midway through the game, the Bulldogs had to play catch-up to the Tigers (6-1) not once, but twice in order to pick up the win.

“It’s huge in a lot of ways,” Lawrence head coach Joey Marcoux said. “It’s huge that we jumped on a good team early. Then we hung onto the lead, then we gave it up. Then you still find a way to battle back. It was just like the Nokomis (game). You fall behind, but you find a way. That builds character. These guys are alright, we’ll be alright.”

Knox, who was 0-3, had two hits in her final two at-bats: A single in the bottom of the eighth that helped tie Gardiner 6-6, and the double — a rope into center field off Gardiner pitcher Raylee Gilbert that scored Ruby Pierce and Ashley Shores for the win.

“I always (swing) for the first pitch, and it was a ball on the first pitch,” Knox said. “And I was like, ‘Maylie, don’t even think about it, just go for it and you just got to hit it.’ I just went for it and it was gone.”

Lawrence pitcher Sage Reed hits the ground after catching a soft liner to put out Gardiner hitter Maddie Inman, right, during a Class B softball game Monday in Fairfield. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Lawrence took the lead in the bottom of the first. Leadoff hitter Kaylee Elkins smacked a double off Gardiner starter Brooke Gero, eventually scoring on a passed ball for the 1-0 lead. The Tigers tied the game 1-1 in the top of the second, when Taylor Takatsu scored on a Kylie Boardman double.

Shores, the Bulldogs’ first baseman, would be responsible for the next three runs, scoring Rylee Veilleux with an RBI groundout in the second inning for a 2-1 lead, then cracking a high, arching shot off Gilbert and over the right field fence for a two-run homer in the fourth inning for a 4-1 lead.

Gardiner was far from done though. In the top of the seventh, Takatsu scored Corinne Vasvary and Gilbert with a double. And with two outs and down to her final strike, Boardman managed to crack a Sage Reed pitch into left field to tie the game 4-4.

The Tigers took a 6-4 lead in the top of the eighth, when Dewey Clary smacked a two-run double to left that plated Gero and Vasvary. But Lawrence took advantage of defensive mishaps by Gardiner in the bottom of the inning, with Veilleux and Elkins both scoring to tie the game 6-6.

The ninth and tenth innings each started with a runner on second base. Gardiner managed to push Lainey Cooley across thanks to an RBI single from Vasvary for the 7-6 lead. But Pierce (single), Shores (hit by pitch) and Elkins (fielder’s choice) each reached base in the bottom of the inning, setting the table for the winning hit for Knox.

Though it’s their first loss of the season, the Tigers have found themselves in some early battles, picking up a 5-3 win over Class A Messalonskee on March 26, a 2-1 win over Medomak Valley on March 28, a 3-2 victory over Leavitt on May 5 and a 2-0 decision over Morse on May 6.

“We needed this (loss),” Gardiner head coach Ryan Gero. “That’s exactly what this team needed, because we’re still on the high from last year, thinking we’re going to walk in and win games. We’ve been battling all year trying to get (the offense) going, trying to get the chemistry going. We’ve moved players around; we’re trying to find the right pieces to the puzzle. And it’s like I’m telling the girls, we were 6-0 last year before losing game seven. And here we are again. That’s how I look at it. Tomorrow, we get back to work and we move forward.”

Jazmin Johnson, who went 2 2/3 innings of relief and struck out three batters, earned the win for the Bulldogs. Gilbert took the loss for the Tigers.