MORAN — Yates Center and Marmaton Valley High’s softball teams treated the crowd to a pair of good, old-fashioned slugfests Thursday.
There was some high drama involved as well. Marmaton Valley scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to emerge with a 15-14 victory to salvage the doubleheader split after Yates Center rolled to a 13-4 romp in game 1.
“The girls felt good to get a win against them,” Marmaton Valley head coach Brenda Mills said. “We saw what they did to Chetopa. I think the girls were a little nervous.” (Yates Center opened the season on Monday with 23-5 and 16-1 wins.)
Madi Lawson’s one-out single in the bottom of the seventh drove in Peyton Scharff, who hit a two-run double to tie the score at 14 apiece.
It capped a wild and woolly affair in which the teams traded leads five times in the contest.
Yates Center broke out in front with a two-run first inning, in which Hannah Jones and Molly Proper both singled and scored.
Marmaton Valley responded with four runs of its own in the bottom of the first, with the first five batters reaching base. Peyton Scharff had a run-scoring single before Kendall Scharff drove in two with a double. Lawson’s RBI grounder gave MV a 4-2 advantage.
Yates Center returned serve in the second inning. Jones and Allie Chrisman rapped RBI doubles before Emma Grogg drove in a run with a single to push YC on top 6-4.
Peyton Scharff tripled and scored as part of MV’s three-run in its half of the second to re-establish a 7-6 lead.
Christman drove in Jones with a single in the third to knot the score at 7-7 but Marmaton Valley retook the lead in the bottom of the frame on Bailey LaRue’s RBI single to score Lawson, who led off with a single.
Peyton Scharff continued her monster game with a two-run double in the fourth as the lead grew to 11-7, just in time for Yates Center to rally to tie the score in the fifth.
Yates Center’s Lauren McConaghie’s bases-loaded double was the big blast.
Peyton Scharff responded for MV with a double to drive in Aly Ard for a 12-11 lead in the bottom of the fifth, but Yates Center retook the lead with a three-run sixth, including another two-run double from Chrisman.
That set up Marmaton Valley’s half of the seventh, and the late-game heroics from Peyton Scharff and Lawson.
YATES CENTER had much firmer control of the opening game.
Jones singled twice and scored twice as YC led 3-0 after three. She and Proper each hit solo home runs as the visitors pulled away in the late innings.
