Carroll rumbles into 5A softball semifinals
The Bishop Carroll softball team has come up with timely hits in important spots most of the season, and it was business as usual for the Eagles on Friday night at the Class 5A softball tournament.
Carroll scored five runs on four hits while sending nine batters to the plate in the second inning en route to a 7-0 victory over Topeka Seamen.
The Eagles play St. Thomas Aquinas today at 10 a.m. in the semifinals at Two Rivers Youth Club.
“We had a little bit of everybody contributed tonight,” Carroll coach Angie Dal Pazzo said. “We played a great ballgame and I really couldn’t ask for any more.”
Kelsey Jones led off the second inning with a single. Following the first out, Colby Dresher singled and then Kacey Jansen doubled to score Jones.
After Hunter Hogan walked, Kaitlyn Carey singled, which scored Dresher.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Sarah Balderas cleared the bases with a three-run double.
Balderas fouled off several pitches before hitting the belt-high fastball into right center.
“She kept throwing change-ups outside and I don’t really like those pitches,” Balderas said. “I was just waiting for my pitch and I wanted to make sure to put the ball in play because the bases were loaded.”
While Carroll’s offense was rolling, so was freshman starting pitcher Jessica Haffner. She scattered four hits and none of Seamen’s hits were hit particularly hard. Haffner also struck out nine.
“They never really put any pressure on us defensively,” Dal Pazzo said. “We scored runs and they really couldn’t catch up.”
Hays 3, Andover Central 1 — Andover Central had opportunity after opportunity in its game, but couldn’t muster more than one run.
Central had more hits than Hays, but left 10 runners on base.
“Not to take anything away from Hays, because they are a good team, but we really beat ourselves,” Andover Central coach Rita Frakes said. “We left too many runners on and we just couldn’t do that in a game like this.”
Hitting with two outs and with runners in scoring position was particularly problematic, as the Jaguars had a runner on second base with two outs in the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings but only one crossed the plate.
In the bottom of the seventh, Megan Sorlie reached on an error, Lacey Bolen followed with a single to center and both runners advanced on the throw to third attempting to tag out Sorlie.
But Cami Gee popped out to the shortstop and Kristine Mears grounded out to third to end the game, and end Central’s season.
“The top of my lineup has been my go-to kids all year and they didn’t come through,” Frakes said. “I thought we could play with them and the kids did too, but we got too anxious at the plate.”
Aquinas 7, Valley Center 1 — The one area Valley Center coach Corey Jones had leaned on with his softball team this season had been defense.
Friday night, that area let the Hornets down: Five errors.
“The errors we made were easy plays that should have been made,” Jones said. “Aquinas is a good team and we can’t have errors against good teams.”
Aquinas scored three runs in the bottom of the first, and Valley Center never recovered.
“The errors changed how we played offensively,” Jones said. “We really couldn’t play our small ball, because we weren’t playing for one run, we had to play for four.”
Andover Central (12-10) 000 010 0 — 1 6 2
Hays (22-1) 000 300 x — 3 4 1
W—Schumacher. L—Bolen.
Topeka Seamen (16-6) 000 000 0 — 0 4 0
Bishop Carroll (21-2) 050 200 x— 7 15 0
W—Haffner. L—Munoz.
Valley Center (17-6) 001 000 0 — 1 4 5
Aquinas (19-4) 310 300 x — 7 9 1
W—Hintz. L---Spears.
Shawnee Heights (17-6) 000 030 0 — 3 6 2 Blue Valley (17-4) 101 120 x — 5 9 2
W—Rogers. L—Wells. HR—BV, Goodwin.