A long day of softball showed first-year Houston coach Conaley Aaron where his team stands with conference play beginning this week.
“We’ve got work to do,” Aaron said after his team went 2-1 in Saturday’s SCA Tournament at Mountain Grove. “We know where we’re at in the SCA now. We’ll be right there in the hunt. We’re one of those teams that we can pop you and we can get popped.”
It was an up and down day for the Lady Tigers than began with a 5-3 victory over Salem and former HHS softball coach Jim Moore. Following a lopsided 14-2 defeat to Ava, Houston rallied with 7 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to complete an 18-16 comeback win against Mountain Grove in the third-place game.
Willow Springs, who the Lady Tigers (6-2) host on Thursday in their SCA opener, rallied past Ava 15-14 in the championship game.
Early runs, defensive plays stop Salem
Trailing 1-0, Houston scored 4 times in the bottom of the first inning and behind several key defensive plays, opened pool play with a 5-3 win against Salem.
Katy Evans and Ashley Gilbert had a pair of hits. Sophomore Claire Benoist drove in two runs and stole two bases.
Senior catcher Gracyn McNiell, who led off the bottom of the first with a triple and later scored, made multiple key defensive plays. She threw out two runners attempting to steal, caught a bunt popup and threw to first for a double play and in the third inning corralled a one-hop throw from center fielder Natalie Clinton to tag out a runner at the plate to end the inning.
“The first girl steals and gets thrown out by 3 steps – that shut down their running game,” Aaron said. “We had the play at the plate and a double play. Those things shut down their momentum.”
Sophomore Ava Koch scattered seven hits in 4 1/3 innings of relief work in the win. She struck out four and walked two. Both runs she allowed were unearned.
Aaron said emotions were admittedly high facing Moore for the first time since he left the program.
“It was a little tough for the girls with their feelings,” he said, “but they handled it.”
Ava slows Lady Tigers offense
The Houston offense never got going against Ava right-hander Hunter Struck, who gave up just 3 hits while striking out 9.
McNiell, Gilbert and Izzy Cook all had singles for the Lady Tigers. McNiell was also hit by a pitch – her seventh in 7 games – and stole her team-leading 10th base.
Ava took advantage of 7 hit batters and a pair of errors. No. 3 hitter Samantha Thompson was 2-for-2 with 5 RBIs.
“(Struck) was the toughest pitcher we’ve seen this season,” Aaron said.
Sixth-inning outbust in finale
Trailing by as many as 9 runs in the third-place game, the Lady Tigers offense scored 10 times in their final two innings – highlighted by 7 runs in the sixth – for a comeback win.
McNiell pulled HHS even at 16-all with a two-out, two-run inside-the-park homerun down the left-field line. Two batters later, Evans tripled to score Kincaid to put the Lady Tigers in front. Gilbert tripled to right field – her team-best 17th run knocked in – to complete the rally.
“In one inning we came alive,” Aaron said. “They started listening and doing what we talk about: shoot the ball back where it came from.”
Koch pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to seal the win. She threw 214 pitches in the 3 tournament games – all in relief – and earned both of the team’s wins.
“Ava Koch threw her tail off today,” Aaron said. “Couldn’t ask for anymore out of that kid.”
Kincaid was 4-for-4 with an inside-the-park homerun and 3 RBIs. McNiell, Evans, Gilbert, Koch, Benoist and Aristea Melroy had 2 hits apiece as part of a 17-hit attack.
BOX SCORES
Saturday’s games
Salem 120 00 – 3 7 0
Houston 401 00 – 5 7 3
HOU (ab-r-h-bi) – McNiell c 3-1-1-0. Kincaid p 3-0-1-0. Evans 2b 2-2-2-0. Gilbert 1b 2-1-2-1. Koch ss 1-1-0-0. Benoist 3b 2-0-1-2. Volk lf 2-0-0-0. Shuman dp 2-0-0-0. Clinton cf 2-0-0-0. Totals 19-5-7-3.
2B: Gilbert 2, Evans, Kincaid. 3B: McNiell. SB: Benoist 2.
WP: Koch.
Houston 002 0 – 2 3 2
Ava 534 2 – 14 8 1
HOU (ab-r-h-bi) – McNiell c 1-1-1-0. Kincaid p 2-0-0-0. Evans 2b 2-0-0-0. Gilbert 1b 2-0-1-1. Koch ss 2-0-0-0. Benoist 3b 2-0-0-0. Warner dp 2-0-0-0. Clinton cf 2-0-0-0. Cook rf 1-1-1-0. Totals 16-2-3-1.
SB: McNiell. HBP: McNiell.
LP: Kincaid.
Mtn. Grove 160 270 0 – 16 13 5
Houston 510 237 x – 18 17 2
HOU (ab-r-h-bi) – McNiell c 4-3-2-2. Kincaid cf 4-4-4-3. Evans 2b 4-3-2-1. Gilbert 1b 4-2-2-2. Koch ss 5-2-2-2. Benoist 3b 4-2-2-3. Cook lf 4-0-1-1. Melroy dp 2-2-2-1. Clinton p 2-0-0-0. Warner cf 1-0-0-1. Totals 34-18-17-16.
2B: McNiell, Kincaid. 3B: Koch 2, Gilbert, Evans, Kincaid. HR: McNiell. SF: Warner. CS: Cook.
WP: Koch.