SOFTBALL: Lady Falcons miss chance at outright SEC crown
With a chance to win the South Egyptian Conference title outright in front of them on their home field, Elverado laid an egg on the scoreboard, falling 7-0 to Cobden on Wednesday, resulting in a three-way tie for the conference championship between the Lady Falcons, Lady Appleknockers, and Dongola.
Errors, mental mistakes, and stranded base runners haunted Elverado from the second inning on, as Cobden capitalized with six unearned runs.
"They were definitely the better team today," said EHS head softball coach Donette Wheatley. "We just completely fell apart. The four errors absolutely killed us. We gave them extra chances to hit because we couldn't catch a foul ball, and we left the bases loaded with no outs. They were ready to win and we weren't. Their heads stayed in the game and ours didn't."
Things began to turn ugly for the Lady Falcons in the bottom of the second inning with the game still scoreless. Britani Prescott, Tori Ehlers and Brooke Whittington all singled to start the inning and load the bases, but Appleknockers hurler Carly Washer got a pop-out and a pair of strikeouts to keep EHS off of the scoreboard.
The momentum carried over to the top of the third for both teams. Elverado began the frame with an error, and Cobden came through with a pair of singles and a walk in a three-run rally against Whittington, the Lady Falcons' starter.
Things settled down for a while as Whittington retired the side in order in the fourth, but the Appleknockers used two singles and another EHS error in the fifth to pad their lead to 5-0. Cobden tacked on two more in the sixth while Elverado continued to come up empty at the plate, going hitless in innings 3-through-6 before stranding two base runners in the seventh.
Prescott (2-3), Ehlers (2-2, BB) and Whittington (1-3) had hits for the Lady Falcons. Whittington allowed one earned run on six hits and two walks with six strikeouts in the circle. Washer fanned six and walked one for Cobden.
Elverado finishes the regular season with a record of 11-10, 7-1 in conference play. They'll travel to Campbell Hill for the IHSA Class A Trico Regional next Wednesday where they will again meet Cobden in the semifinals at 4:30 p.m. The winner moves on to Saturday's championship at 11:00 a.m.