A dramatic grand slam home run by Milan’s Maddie Schoonover, with the Lady Wildcats down to their last out in the top of the 7th inning, was the key swing of the bat in a 9-6 win at Polo on Thursday night, evening the Lady ‘Cats record at 1-1 overall and in Grand River Conference play, while saddling the Lady Panthers with a loss in their GRC opener.
Milan trailed 3-2 in the top of the 7th inning when Schoonover connected off of Polo starting pitcher Shelby Copeland. Just as important as Schoonover’s grand slam to Milan’s win were three additional runs scored in the inning by the Lady ‘Cats, particularly after Polo scored four times in the bottom half of the frame.
Polo took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but saw the visitors from Milan tie the game at 2 in the top of the 5th inning, as the Lady Panther error helped in Milan’s rally.
From the circle, Schoonover earned the win for Milan, with seven innings of six run softball, with four strikeouts and only one walk. Copeland surrendered nine runs for Polo, striking out six and walking one over seven innings.
Maggie Martin and Kallie Heil each had two-hit nights for PHS, with Milan’s Sylvester, Weaver, Banner, and Sayre all collecting multi-hit games for the “Green ‘n Gold”.
Milan Coach Nathan Dodson was ecstatic about the road win, telling Sports Director Tom Johnson, “Can’t say enough about how my girls never gave in and played much better defensively tonight! Maddie put us on her shoulders at the plate and on the mound… the rest of our lineup continued to have solid at bats and step up in the moment! Big win for our club over a tough conference opponent!”
Elsewhere in the GRC’s Eastern Division, Putnam County stayed even with Trenton atop the standings with a 2-0 record, scoring a single run in the 7th inning to tie Gallatin, then scoring another run in the 8th to take the lead, holding on for a 6-5 road win at GHS. Sammi Bradshaw scattered eight hits over eight innings to earn the win for Putnam County, while Karley Salmon took the loss for Gallatin.
Maysville, playing in South Harrison’s home opener in Bethany, bounced back in a big way from Tuesday night’s shutout loss to Trenton, rolling up double-digit runs in an 18-5 victory, with both teams now headed to the weekend at 1-1 in GRC play.
In the GRC’s Western Division, Stanberry survived a strong road test at Braymer, winning 5-3, while Albany took down Pattonsburg 16-9.
Other softball scores from Thursday, August 24, 2017 were:
Gilman City 10, Grundy County R-V 9
Winston 14, Tri-County 13
North Harrison 16, East Harrison 0
Chillicothe 3, Lawson 2
Norborne 8, Stewartsville 3
Hamilton 12, Higginsville 7
Lathrop 7, Carrollton 0 (Brooke Huitt – 19 strikeouts)
Brookfield 3, South Shelby 1
Benton 10, Platte Valley 1
North Nodaway 5, Worth County 4
Savannah 3, DeKalb 0
East Buchanan 15, Northeast Nodaway 0
