Home sweep home! Red Devils defeat Coffeyville

Allen Community College's softball team cruised to an 8-3 win over Coffeyville Thursday, then surrendered a big lead in the second game of their doubleheader. But the Red Devils rallied to score the tying and winning runs in dramatic fashion to win, 9-8, and complete the sweep.

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April 12, 2024 - 2:48 PM

Allen Community College's Norah Parker receives a throw to first base Thursday against Coffeyville. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

Coffeyville Community College’s softball team left Iola Thursday feeling a bit windswept.

Host Allen Community College rallied for the winning runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the decisive rally coming on Madisyn Havenstein’s sacrifice fly in a 9-8 Red Devil victory. 

The win capped a doubleheader sweep for the Red Devils, who also won Thursday’s opener, 8-3, and gives ACC four wins in its last six games.

The Game 2 victory featured a number of wild momentum swings.

Allen had control early, courtesy of Ashley Tribble’s bases-clearing double in the bottom of the first. Abby Marsh followed with an RBI single for a 5-0 lead, and a Coffeyville error in the bottom of the second had the Red Devils on top, 6-0. Bailey Campbell’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning made it 7-2 before trouble struck in the top of the fifth.

Coffeyville rallied for five runs to tie the score, and then went ahead 8-7 when Jaemie Johns launched a solo home run to lead off the sixth.

After going down in order in the sixth, Allen’s winning rally started when Red Raven pitcher Addison Pakenham hit Allen’s Hayley Gerberding with a pitch. Bailee Campbell lined the next pitch back up the middle, a shot that got away from the Red Raven shortstop for an error.

Allen’s Jena Hendrix made Coffeyville pay for its miscue, with an opposite-field grounder. Gerberding easily beat the throw home to knot the score.

Pakenham induced a grounder to third off of Tribble’s bat, forcing the runners to stay on second and third for Havenstein.

She lifted a fly ball to left field, where Johns — in an attempt to fire the ball homeward to prevent Campbell from scoring — instead dropped the ball.

Campbell scored without a throw, as the jubilant Red Devils celebrated in a cluster around Havenstein at first.

Allen’s Morgan Collins picked up the win, throwing the final 2.1 innings and striking out three in relief of Marsh, who was dazzling through the first four innings before wobbling a bit in the fifth. Marsh scattered 10 hits and struck out two.

Tribble and Hendrix each had doubles to highlight Allen’s seven-hit attack. Campbell singled twice. Brooklyn Goehring, Marsh and Bethany Gould added singles.

GAME 1 had no such drama, courtesy of Camrynn Yardley’s pitching and Goehring and Campbell’s hitting. 

Yardley shut down Coffeyville’s offense in the face of a jet stream-equivalent wind out of the north, capable of turning routine fly balls into potential home runs.

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