"I've very proud of these girls. Not only for how they battled tonight, but how they battled in every game all season long," said coach Ali Scherrman. "They came ready to play tonight, but they really came ready to hit. That's something we haven't done the last week and a half."
The Wildcats went right after Emily Stoner, the Mustangs' ace, and took a 1-0 lead in their half of the first inning when Hannah Huber delivered a two-out RBI single that scored Taylor Lubben who had walked and stole second base.
The Mustangs answered right back with a run in their half of the opening frame.
In the top of the fifth inning with one out, Sammie Salow got things going with a solid two hopper to center field for Maquoketa Valley. She moved to third on a Mustang error that put Rachel Hoeger on first base. Hoeger stole second and the Wildcats had a
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"That call really hurt us," said Scherrman. "Instead of getting two and possibly more runs that late in the game, we only get one." The Wildcats grabbed their gloves and went back to work for one of the most important innings of the game.
Lubben's back-handed catch of a sinking line drive in the hole between short and third for the second out of the inning was the first big play, but it was Abbie Wooten's play to end the inning that was possibly the biggest play of the game for the Wildcats. After Lubben's catch, the next two batters for the Mustangs reached base and were at second and third when Lowe, the Mustangs' most dangerous hitter and RBI leader, hit a pop-up to the third base side. Wooten drifted toward the Wildcats' dugout and fell onto her back, but she still found a way to stretch herself out to make the catch that ended the inning.
With one out in the seventh, Salow reached base on a fielding error. An out later, Lubben walked setting the stage for Funke. "Allie was a great person to have up in that situation. She doesn't strike out very much so we knew she was going to put the ball in play and that they would have to make a play to end the game," said Scherrman.
Put the ball in play is just what Funke did. She hit a slow chopper to the shortstop who threw to the first baseman who couldn't hold onto the ball. Salow scored from second base and Lubben ended up at third base.
"She ran the whole thing out, which was big," said Scherrman of Funke hustling down the line. "However, Taylor went into second sliding and that kind of distracted the shortstop. These two girls play hard all the time and their constant hustle really helped us there. It's just too bad we couldn't come up with another two-out hit that would have given us the lead. It might have been a totally different outcome then."
After the play was over, Stamp made a visit to the circle where he managed to settle down his infield and pitcher to get out of the inning without any more damage and eventually won the game on Wieditz's hit.
Hannah Huber took the tough luck loss for the Wildcats as her record on the mound dropped to 8-13. She allowed only two earned runs, while giving up eight hits. The Wildcats ended the season at 15-22.