Published: May 10, 2008 12:12 am            

Pulaski downs Lady Warriors 5-4

Somerset — A deep grounder up the middle of the infield by Pulaski’s Lindsey Stephens drove home Morgan Pike from third to score the winning run in the bottom half of the eighth inning in the Lady Maroons’ 5-4 win over Southwestern on Friday.

In a classic battle between the two cross-town rival softball teams, Pulaski overcame a 2-0 deficit going in to the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 4-2 lead.

However, Southwestern bounced back to tie the game by scoring runs in the sixth and seventh innings — forcing the battle into extra innings.

In the extra inning with the international rule in place (each at bat starts with an automatic base runner on second base), Southwestern had runners on second and third with only one out. But on a Leanze Jones bunt single, Pulaski pitcher Brittany McKee picked off the Southwestern runner on third base to stifle the Lady Warriors’ chance at a rally in the extra inning.

“Wow, this was a fun game to watch,” Southwestern coach Jim Woodall said with a big smile. “Pulaski played a good game, but our girls played a good game. We hit the ball pretty good and we had our chances and we had a good chance in the eighth and that is all you can ask for.”

In the Lady Maroons’ half of the eighth, Jessica Randolph got on base off a well-placed bunt and advanced Pike to third — setting up Stephens’ game-winner hit.

“I have to give our team a lot of credit because we kept plugging away and we did a lot better job tonight that we did last time about knowing where the strike zone was, “ Pulaski coach Scott Taylor said. “We told the girls if we swing at strikes and put the ball in play, good things are bound to happen.”

Randolph put life back into the Lady Maroons with a three-run homer to centerfield earlier in the fifth inning, giving Pulaski a 4-2 lead.

“I made a ‘no decision’ that maybe I should of made,” Woodall admitted. “I went out to talk to Shelby (Kosmecki) and I thought about intentionally walking Randolph, but then I decided that we would pitch to her.”

In the first four innings, Southwestern hurler Shelby Kosmecki had allowed only two hits. But in the fifth all that changed when Pulaski put two runners on base — Kayla Lorman reached on a Lady Warrior fielding error and K.K. Holman on an infield single. Pike laid down a perfect bunt forcing Southwestern into a throwing error, thus allowing Lorman to score from third.

Randolph cleared the bases with her fifth homer of the season, and second homer of the week, to put the Lady Maroons ahead 4-2.

“Jessica (Randolph) has hit two homers this week and she is hitting the ball pretty good now,” Taylor said of his star player. “In the past couple of weeks, she has been through not really a slump but not up to her usual high level of hitting. She’s getting her swing back and her confidence is rising.”

However, Taylor pointed to Randolph’s ‘small-ball’ batting being the big key in the Lady Maroons’ win.

“Jessica’s big hit was that bunt in the eighth inning, because I think that caught Southwestern off guard a little bit after she had just hit a three-run homer,” Taylor explained. “We had to bunt the runner up in that situation and Jessica did that for the betterment of the team.”

The Lady Warriors were able to battle back with a run scored in each of their next two at bats.

In the sixth inning, Bethany Beatty tripled to deep right center and later scored off a Kosmecki ground out.

Then in the seventh inning, the Lady Warriors put the tying run on the scoreboard when Kosmecki singled to centerfield to plate Sarah Hranicky.

Not only did Kosmecki pitch the entire eight innings for the Lady Warriors, but she drove in all four of Southwestern’s runs at the plate with her bat.

In the fourth inning, Kosmecki smashed a single to centerfield sending home Beatty and Ashley Fowler giving the Lady Warriors the early 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile Pulaski, used three different pitchers and made four pitching changes throughout the game. Stephens pitched the first four innings, Randolph pitched 1 1/3 innings before Stephens re-entered to pitch another 2/3 innings, and finally McKee pitched the final 1 2/3 innings to pick up the win.

“It is rare that you throw three different pitchers in a game and still find a way to win the game,” Taylor said.

The Lady Maroons (20-8) will host Richmond Model on Monday, May 12. Southwestern (21-9) will host Corbin on Monday, May 12.



SW 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 — 4 8 2

PC 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 — 5 7 0

2B — Beatty (SW), Buxton (PC). 3B — Beatty (SW). HR — Randolph (PC). RBI— Kosmecki 4 (SW), Randolph 3 (PC), Stephens (PC). WP — McKee (PC). LP — Kosmecki (SW).

        

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