New Richmond – Megan Cook couldn’t have expected she’d be in the position she was Tuesday.
With Game 2 of the Class AA Region 3 championship tied 2-2 and runners on the corners, Cook, batting seventh in the lineup with just one career hit, was just hoping to put the ball in play.
“I struck out the first two times so I just went up there thinking I needed to hit it,” a grinning Cook said. “The coaches told me before the game to hit it to my mom.”
Cook missed her mom, who was sitting in the bleachers behind the right field fence, by six feet.
Her three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning gave Wyoming East a 5-2 lead that it held onto, beating Independence in New Richmond Tuesday to force a decisive Game 3.
The moment was almost too good to be true for the freshman who was starting in place of Cadence Clay, who is away from the team this week.
The big hit wasn’t a surprise to East head coach Doc Warner.
“I’ve been waiting for her all year to hit,” Warner said. “In practice you can’t get her out. She never hits in a game though. She had one hit all year. The bottom of the order, they had been killing us, but today, they started the rally.”
While Cook’s home run was the decisive hit, it was the capper for a huge inning.
Down 2-0 heading into the frame, the Lady Warriors had some momentum after stranding runners on the corners in the previous inning.
No. 2 hitter Paige Laxton lined a couple foul balls deep, but ultimately struck out to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Olivia Hylton followed the trend of hard contact, crushing a ball off the fence in left for a double, prompting a meeting in the circle.
“The kids actually saw that,” Indy head coach Ken Adkins said. “They had backed off the plate because we were running balls in on them. That’s when they started hitting the ball foul. We made some adjustments, but when we made those we just didn’t hit spots. We had a huge blown third-strike call and all that happened after that.”
Hylton’s double brought Andrea Laxton, who had struck out in three of her last four at-bats against Buckland, to the plate.
With one swing she tied the game, launching a two-run shot to the same vicinity Cook’s would later land.
“I just had to be a lot more confident,” Laxton said. “I had really been getting down on myself where I couldn’t hit her, so I wanted to step up there with confidence. She was mostly pitching me inside, but something just happened.”
Buckland induced a long flyout for the second out of the frame, but a double from Lilly Hill and a walk to Makayla King brought Cook to the plate, who pulled off her heroics.
“That pitch was low and outside and that’s my pitch,” Cook said.
Savannah Brehm followed Cook with a triple to left but was left stranded.
Still, the damage was done after what looked to be a sure Indy victory.
The Lady Patriots were cruising through four innings as Buckland had a no-hitter that was broken up in the fifth.
On offense she was backed by her battery mate Kaylen Parks and Game 1 hero Destiny Blankenship.
After issuing three intentional walks to Parks on Monday and an additional one in her first plate appearance on Tuesday, East head coach Doc Warner tried his luck pitching to her at the start of the fourth.
Parks justified Warner’s earlier decisions and guaranteed she won’t see another pitch in the series, launching the third pitch of the at-bat over the fence in left to give Indy a 1-0 lead.
After four straight intentional walks Wyoming East pitched to Kaylen Parks. She justified the previous decisions.
Indy leads 1-0#wvprepsb pic.twitter.com/dMQAka9x8i
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) June 15, 2021
It was Parks again that caused mayhem in the sixth, receiving her fifth intentional walk and stealing her way to third base. Blankenship brought her home with a single, notching her seventh RBI of the series.
That was the last bright spot of the night for Indy as East mounted its rally in the bottom of the frame.
“It’s no different than when we came down here,” Adkins said. “We still feel like we can do the same things we did the other day. We didn’t today. They walked Kaylen early and after the home run that paid off today. And we didn’t take advantage of that behind her. (Hylton) came with the changeup and that seemed to bother us some today, so we’ll work on that some. We’re still chasing pitches up and out of the zone so we’ve got to find a cure for that.”
The series will shift to Independence on Wednesday with the winner advancing to the state tournament. First pitch is set for 5:30 p.m.
Contact Tyler Jackson at tylerjackson@lootpress.com, call him at 304-731-5542 and follow on Twitter @tjackRH