HUMBOLDT — Playing in the state tournament is becoming a normal occurrence for the Humboldt Lady Cubs. The team clinched its spot after winning the Class 3A Regional Tournament Tuesday night.
“It was great,” coach Brad Piley said. “I’ll tell you we had the small ballgame going on earlier and we also had the long ballgame going for us, with home runs working for us and our defense was playing good.”
In the first game, the Lady Cubs beat Jayhawk-Linn 7-1. The score wasn’t indicative of how close the game actually was for the majority of it. Humboldt got off to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. Breanna Kline hit a leadoff single. Mallory Roush hit Kline in with an RBI-triple. Courtney Richey hit into a fielders choice to the pitcher, which allowed Roush to come in for the second run.
The Lady Cubs scored another run in the third inning, to increase the lead to 3-0. Kline had another single, then made it to second base after the catcher attempted to throw her out at first while she was leading off in-between pitches. Instead of the ball ending up in the first baseman’s glove, it ended up in right field allowing Kline to take second base. Roush hit a ball that hit the middle of the leftfielders mitt and popped out, allowing Kline to score instead of the inning ending.
The Jayhawks finally scored a run in the fifth. A ball was hit over the rightfielders head toward the fence. The Jayhawk batter made her way all the way back to home plate after a Lady Cub threw the ball wild to third base, allowing for the run to score.
The sixth inning sealed up the game for Humboldt. Mallory Roush had another RBI-triple. She was hit in after an RBI-double from Courtney Richey, who ended up scoring after another dropped ball by a Jayhawk outfielder. Jaci Ross then hit an RBI-single.
Humboldt won the game 7-1, and went on to face Wellsville in the championship. The Eagles won their game against Osage City 6-4, with a three run sixth inning breaking a 3-3 tie.
GAME TWO featured a more consistent Lady Cub offense. After going down 1-0 in the top half of the first, Humboldt answered back in the bottom of the frame. Kline had a leadoff triple and scored after Roush had a bunt single.
“We had all aspects of our play going in the second game,” Piley said.
The second inning saw Humboldt open up its lead. Kayle Riebel had a solo-homer. Delaney Umhotlz then reached on a single, stole second, got to third on a wild pitch and scored on a wild pitch.
Humboldt scored two more runs to take a 5-1 lead in the third inning. Kline reached first on an error and Brooke Turner laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Kline to second. No one was covering third and Kline took the extra bag on the play. Roush then laid down a bunt that allowed Kline to score, and Roush ended up at second because of a wild throw to the plate.
In the fourth inning, Umholtz had a leadoff solo-homer to widen the lead to 6-1. Wellsville answered back in the fifth with their very own solo-homer. Humboldt scored another run in the bottom of the inning on an RBI-single that dropped into right field from Richey.
Two more runs in the sixth, scored off of Eagle mistakes, increased the Lady Cubs lead to 9-2, which would be the final score. Humboldt clinched its berth to the Class 3A State Tournament.
“We want to go all the way, is what we’d like to do,” Piley said.
The Lady Cubs finished the regular season at 23-0.
COURTNEY RICHEY pitched both games, piling up the statistics. Piley said she is awesome and only getting better. In game one, she pitched a complete game with 13 strikeouts, only allowing one run on three hits and a walk. In the championship game, she did more than just make her presence known on the mound. Again, she pitched a complete game, this time with 12 strikeouts. She game up two runs on five hits.
