Gallery by Tina Laney
According to Independence head coach Ken Adkins, ten times this season his girls have scored four runs in an inning.
With the Class AA Region 3 softball championship on the line Friday night, four runs just happened to be deficit that the Patriots faced heading to the bottom of the seventh inning.
The home town girls did the deficit one run better.
After giving up five runs in the top of the seventh to trail 7-3, Independence answered with five in the home half for a wild 8-7 walkoff win in front of a raucous crowd.
“We started three freshman and three sophomores tonight. Let me first say that I am proud of my team for putting us in that situation,” Bluefield head coach Barry Reed said. “We didn’t think we would be in that situation. Once we got there we didn’t know quite how to handle it. Some mistakes (occurred) which typically happens if a team is going to make a come back. This is new territory for us, but I think we learned a lot and grew up today.”
Heading to the top of the seventh, Bluefield trailed 3-2, but after three grueling days, both pitchers started to show the signs of fatigue.
A walk to Grace Richardson opened the inning before she stole second base and took third on a passed ball.
Taylor Mabry then caused the visiting crowd to erupt when she dropped a perfect safety squeeze to score Richardson and tie the game.
“What a great effort by Bluefield. I know they had a lot of stuff going on. They were down a player and they came out today and kept the game close,” Adkins said. “I kept telling our kids we didn’t want to keep giving them opportunities. They do a great job putting the ball in play and they force you to make plays.”
With the adrenaline flowing like a bolt of lightening, the Beavers’ bats started to explode.
Abby Richardson singled and scored on a double from Maddie Lawson, who scored on the third base hit of the inning off the bat of Sophie Hall.
An Independence error and another safety squeeze, this time from Audra Rockness for her third RBI of the night, gave Bluefield a 7-3 lead and all of the momentum.
“We are trying to finish the thing off and they just start whacking the ball. We are talking about lasers and hitting in the gaps,” Adkins said. “What are you going to do there? You just try to weather the storm and hope.”
With the championship on the line and the eight and nine hitters due up, Adkins knew he needed one thing to happen in the seventh for his team to mount a comeback.
“Somehow we had to get back to the top (of the order),” Adkins said. “Then holy smokes, they hit two batters. That was the difference in the game really because it allowed us to get back to the top of the lineup.”
The comeback was momentarily halted with a strikeout before Ali Hypes singled home a run to ignite the partisan home crowd.
A fielder’s choice from Emma Lilly cut the deficit in half, but the Patriots were then down to their final out of the ballgame, trailing 7-5.
After missing on a couple of good changes to throw out advancing Indy runners earlier in the inning, a fly ball behind second base in short center became the back-breaker for the Beavers.
The dropped fly ball allowed Hypes to score and heads up base running from Kendall Martin on the play left her standing at second base.
It all set the stage for sophomore Kassidy Bradbury who stepped into the batter’s box with the tying run 120 feet away.
Bradbury ripped a single up the middle to score Martin, which tied the game that moments earlier seemed very much in doubt.
“I thought we were in really big trouble, but I knew if we worked as a team, we could pull through it,” Bradbury said. “I just took a deep breath and I had to get myself together. I knew I needed to put the ball in play for the team.”
Sounding much like the approach that Bradbury took at the plate, it was freshman Harmony Mills’ turn to step into the limelight Friday.
“I was really nervous going up. I knew if I didn’t hit that ball it would devastate me,” Mills admitted. “I knew I had to hit the ball or get on base somehow. Luckily it was my pitch right there and I hit it.”
With Bradbury at first base, Mills lifted a soft liner into right field and Adkins was not about to let the chance to win the game go by the boards.
“It is a tie game and I have nothing to lose. She is the best person that I have, bar none, going head first and making plays on the bases,” Adkins said about Bradbury. “I thought to myself when she came around that bag, Kassidy Bradbury is my best shot to win this game. They kind of hesitated with the ball and I thought we could get this.”
While the throw was not a perfect strike, it was still good enough to make Bradbury improvise at the plate.
“I knew the ball was coming and I had to get around the tag. I saw the ball, I saw the catcher and I just tried to go around her,” Bradbury said. “I missed the plate and I knew I had to get back up and tag it and I got it.”
Mills also admitted to having some doubts about the comeback, but those quickly went away with the help of her teammates.
“When we were playing the field and making errors, I had doubts,” Mills said. “But when we got in the dugout and everyone hyped us up, I knew we could come back. This is the biggest moment (of my high school career so far) for me. It feels amazing.”
While clearly disappointed with the loss, Reed was proud of the fight in his team.
“We are going to be back. We don’t lose anyone at all, so we will be back. I am proud of the way they came out and competed tonight,” Reed said. “We got thrashed last night and we rebounded. I told them before we got on the bus today, Let’s give it a shot and see what we can do. I think we did that and I am proud of that. That is all you can ask for.”
Independence advances to the state softball tournament at Little Creek Park in South Charleston. The Patriots will battle five-time defending Class AA state champion Herbert Hoover Wednesday morning.