BURLINGTON — Humboldt High and Burlington High trade late, winning rallies Thursday.
The host Wildcats scored three in the bottom of the sixth to rally for a 6-5 win in their opener, before Humboldt’s Lady Cubs returned the favor by scoring two in the top of the fifth to break a 4-4 tie in a 6-5 win.
The split puts Humboldt at 10-2 on the season.
Humboldt had control early in the opener after Kirstyn Murrow doubled and Karley Wools lined a single to put runners on the corners. Brooklyn Ellis smacked a sacrifice fly and Emily Ross reached on an error to push the Lady Cubs ahead, 2-0.
Wools then drove in Morgan Sterling with a single to make it 3-0 in the second.
But Burlington tied the score at 3-3 in the third.
Sterling singled, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball in the fourth. Wools hit a sac fly to push the Lady Cubs back on top, 4-3.
Carsyn Haviland walked and scored on Laken Hunter’s two-out triple in the top of the fifth to extend Humboldt’s lead.
But a double, triple and sacrifice fly allowed Burlington to tie the score in the sixth. Two more singles and an error then pushed the Wildcats into the lead.
Ross singled with one out in the seventh, but Humboldt’s bats fell silent from there.
Murrow went 2-for-3 with a double, while Ross singled twice. Hunter had a triple, and Wools and Sterling both had singles.
Ellis and Shelby Shaughnessy shared pitching duties. Ellis surrendered five hits over three innings with a strikeout. Shaughnesy gave up four hits over three innings with a strikeout.
HUMBOLDT left the nightcap in a better mood after Ellis singled, stole second and third and scored on an error to break a 4-4 deadlock in the fifth. A second error brought Shaughnessy home for an all-important insurance run.
Back-to-back Lady Cub errors threatened to spill the fun in the bottom of the inning when Burlington closed the gap to 6-5.
But Ellis ended the threat with back-to-back strikeouts. Shaughnessy came on in relief and worked around a hit batter in the sixth and a seventh-inning walk to seal the win.
Ellis struck out five and gave up 10 hits to earn the win. Shaughnessy struck out one over her two hitless innings of work.
