Lady Cats rally to shutout Eudora in nightcap

By Andy Brown
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Updated: April 13, 2017

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg catcher Emalee Overbay makes a throw to third base during the Lady Cats’ doubleheader with Eudora on Tuesday at Lewis-Young Park. The Lady Cats won the nightcap 2-0 after falling 12-4 in the opener.

Fresh off a disappointing loss in the first game of its doubleheader, the Louisburg High School girls softball team could have let them affect for the nightcap.

The Lady Cats allowed a nine-run seventh inning that resulted in a 12-4 loss to Eudora on Tuesday at Lewis-Young Park and they had just a few minutes to put that behind them and focus on the next one.

It didn’t take Louisburg long to forget as the Lady Cats shut down the Eudora offense and earned a 2-0 victory to salvage the doubleheader and end the night on a positive note.

“I challenged the girls to put that one bad inning behind us and move on,” Louisburg coach John Ozier said. “They did just that with a great shutout victory. All parts of our game came together in the nightcap.”

A big part of that was pitcher Allison Boles. The Louisburg freshman earned the complete game shutout as she allowed just six hits to go along with four strikeouts.

Boles also had a good defense behind her as the Lady Cats didn’t commit an error and made some big plays in the process. The biggest came in seventh inning when Eudora threatened to tie the game, but third baseman Emalee Overbay caught a line drive and then dove to tag out a Eudora runner to end the Cardinal scoring threat.

“Allie Boles came in and pitched a great game when we needed it most,” Ozier said. “She has demonstrated great composure for a freshmen against three really good teams. She is consistently around the plate. Knowing that the defense behind her is solid, also allows her to pitch without a lot of pressure. Emalee had a defensive gem there and was one of the biggest plays of the game.”

Freshman Allison Boles makes contact with a pitch during Louisburg’s contest with Eudora on Tuesday.

The game was scoreless in the fifth, but the Lady Cats broke the game open with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning.

Sophomore Karson Griggs led off with a double and then scored on a single from fellow sophomore Madison Svoboda. Overbay followed with a single and moved pinch-runner Lauren Cutshaw to second. Cutshaw later scored on a Eudora to make it 2-0.

In the top of the sixth, Eudora had a runner at third as it tried to cut into the lead, but was caught trying to steal home when she was tagged out. The Wildcats then ended another threat with Overbay’s play in the seventh.

To start the doubleheader, Louisburg (3-3) trailed 3-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning in the first game, but scored a pair of runs to get back in it.

Svoboda doubled to start the inning and then scored on a wild pitch. Allyssa Griggs did the same two batters later she also doubled and scored on the passed ball.

Although the Lady Cats cut into the lead, Eudora responded in a big way with nine runs in the top of seventh, thanks to four Louisburg errors and the Lady Cats weren’t able to recover.

Svoboda led Louisburg with three hits – all doubles – in the opener. Allyssa Griggs and Boles each added two hits as Louisburg outhit Eudora 10-6 in the game.

Louisburg didn’t go down without a fight as Kennia Hankinson led the bottom of the seventh off with a triple and later scored on a sacrifice from Karson Griggs.

Svoboda followed with another double and moved into scoring position on a single from Overbay. Allyssa Griggs followed with a single to score Svoboda to gain a little confidence heading into the nightcap.

Allyssa Griggs started the game for Louisburg and gave up seven earned runs, but also had eight strikeouts.

“After the rough top of the seventh inning we experienced, we did come back and put up some fight in our last at bat,” Ozier said. “I think some of that momentum carried over to the second game.

“We actually played well in game one. Allyssa battled hard to keep us in the game. I feel that we had our scoring opportunities, but just could not get the key hit to give us some momentum in the game. I felt like everyone stepped up in game two and did something productive to help us get out of the night with a split.”