HUMBOLDT — Some dominant pitching from Osage City’s Payton Pitts, a few too many bobbles afield and an unfortunate baserunning error proved costly for Humboldt High’s Lady Cubs Monday.
Pitts pitched both ends of the doubleheader, stifling Humboldt in a 9-0 shutout in Game 1, and then withstanding an early charge in Game 2 as the Indians won, 4-2.
The setbacks drop Humboldt to 14-9 with a doubleheader Thursday set to wrap up the 2024 regular season. Humboldt stands in third place in its Class 3A regional bracket, 1½ games ahead of Iola and behind Bluestem (20-0) and Wichita’s Trinity Academy (13-3).
“They’re a good team,” Humboldt head coach Brad Piley said of Osage City, which improved to 15-1 with the victories.
Still, Humboldt had a golden opportunity to take the nightcap.
A pair of Lady Cub fielding errors helped Osage City jump out to a quick 3-0 lead after half an inning before the bottom of Humboldt’s lineup spearheaded a rally in the bottom of the second.
Chanlynn Wrestler started things with a double. She scored on Hadley Galloway’s single. Kamri De La Torre followed with a single and Rylan Covey was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.
The game turned on what should have been an RBI single by Carlie Weilert, but instead turned into a double play, when the runner on second didn’t advance on the hit. Osage City fired the ball back to the infield as courtesy runner Leah Carman crossed the plate with the second run. But with two runners still standing on second base, the Indians tagged out both, leaving Humboldt with a runner on first with two outs.
A strikeout to the next batter ended the threat.
“We should have known better,” Piley said. “This is our 23rd game of the year. We can’t make mistakes like that.”
The Lady Cubs had another early scoring chance, but came up empty after Shelby Shaughnessy and Taevyn Baylor hit back-to-back singles with one out. Pitts held Humboldt without a hit the rest of the way.
Shaughnessy also had a strong outing on the mound, allowing six hits over seven innings with eight strikeouts.
“She pitched well,” Piley said. “We just need to be more consistent everywhere.”
Wrestler’s double was Humboldt’s only extra-base hit of the night. Shaughnessy, Baylor, De La Torre and Weilert had the team’s other hits, all singles.
OSAGE CITY jumped ahead quickly in the opener, leading 2-0 after one, and didn’t look back.
