May 12, 2018

PIEDMONT -- The defending state champion Strafford Indians broke through in the fourth inning and rolled to a 12-2 victory over Clearwater on Saturday in a MSHSAA Class 1 quarterfinal at Rotary Park. Clearwater pitcher Rachel Rowold held the Indians scoreless through three innings before they sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth to take control...

PIEDMONT -- The defending state champion Strafford Indians broke through in the fourth inning and rolled to a 12-2 victory over Clearwater on Saturday in a MSHSAA Class 1 quarterfinal at Rotary Park.

Clearwater pitcher Rachel Rowold held the Indians scoreless through three innings before they sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth to take control.

"You could tell early we were getting jammed, jammed, jammed," Strafford coach Dale Bean said. "(We had) a lot of balls off (our) hands early in the count. (Rowold) was throwing a pretty good change-up today. She was making us think up there, work up there. That was a good job by her.

"But, we just made some adjustments. The second time through the order, we started putting the ball on it a lot better. Once we got the nerves out a little bit, we started squaring it up."

Zoey Mullings singled, to open the fourth inning, and Alissa Collette tripled home the first run. Presley Floyd grounded out to second base to give Strafford a 2-1 lead.

Kayley Frank singled, and Logan Jones drew a walk, setting the stage for Taylor Treat's two-out, run-scoring single.

After leadoff batter Kaitlyn Vote drew a walk to load the bases, Hayley Frank tripled down the right-field line to give the Indians a 6-1 lead.

"(Rowold) got rattled a little," Beam said. "Hayley with the bases loaded, I told her (the pitcher's) been behind, behind, behind. She's going to be right here, right down the middle, trying to get ahead with you. She jumped on it and cleared the bases. I think after that we kind of relaxed and played a lot better."

The Indians scored one run in the fifth and five in the sixth to close out the game.

Clearwater struck first in the second inning. Amy Holmes struck out but reached first base on a wild pitch to open the inning. She stole second, moved to third on Makenna Black's grounder to the first baseman and scored on a wild pitch.

The Tigers threatened in the first inning, loading the bases with one out. However, Mullings struck out the next two batters to escape trouble.

"I would've liked to see early on how much of a difference that would've made in the game," Clearwater coach Shannon England said of cashing in on the first-inning opportunity. "We had runners all over the place the whole game. That was the one thing, we could never come up with the big hit. You've got to tip your cap to their pitcher. She's a great pitcher."

Mullings allowed two runs on two hits with four walks and nine strikeouts and six walks in six innings. She stranded seven baserunners.

"We were dodging bullets the first three innings , left and right," Bean said. "Zoey made some great pitches. She had to buckle down right off the bat. which is not good for later in the game. You could tell she was tired (at the end) because we don't play a lot of seven-inning games."

Trailing 12-1, the Tigers threatened in the sixth, attempting to extend the game to the seventh inning.

Brittany Adams drew a leadoff walk, and Rowold singled to shallow right field. Atter Tabbie Carroll popped out to the third baseman, Holmes drew a walk to load the bases. Adams scored on a ground out to shortstop to cut the Indians' lead to 10, but Mullings struck out Black to end the game early on the 10-run rule.

Rowold yielded 12 runs, 10 earned, on 13 hits with three strikeouts and two walks in six innings.

Clearwater finished the season 17-9 making its first quarterfinal appearance.

The Indians (27-0) will face Liberal (24-3) in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday in Springfield.

Park Hills Central (21-3) and Adrian (23-5) will meet in the other semifinal at 5 p.m. Friday.

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