Lady Bulldogs drop heartbreaker to Chaffee

Lady Devils get out of bases loaded jam in eighth

SIKESTON -- With the bases loaded and only one out in extra innings, the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs had a golden opportunity to not only tie the game against the Chaffee Lady Devils on Tuesday, but maybe take the game with a base hit.

Elizabeth Raines did her job by putting the ball in play with a line drive shot towards the left side of the infield. But, unfortunately for her and the rest of the Lady Bulldogs, it was right at the Chaffee shortstop, Taylor Kirchdoerfer, who caught the line drive and then immediately stepped on second for the game-ending double play.

Sikeston fell to Chaffee 4-3 in eight innings.

"We came out and played about two innings," Sikeston head coach Tiffany King said about her teams play. "I kept asking the girls to get up and for the first five innings we weren't the same ball team we were Friday. We got to come out from the start and then we wouldn't even be in a situation like that. When we come out from the start and hit the ball like we were doing and have confidence like we did on Friday we won't be in that kind of predicament."

A good thing that King did like from her team on Tuesday's game was that to be in that situation the Lady Bulldogs came back from a two-run deficit in the seventh inning to force the extra inning.

"That is one good thing about the girls," said King. "They are battling back and their not quitting until the end of the game. It's just one of those things from a coaches perspective. When you see your team play as good as they did on Friday and then come out and look totally different, your a little upset."

In the bottom of the seventh inning and with two outs recorded, Emilie Martin reached first base on a walk which was followed by a Sarah Hopson single. There was an error on the outfield during Hopson's hit which allowed Martin to score and Hopson to reach second base.

Krystal Henson followed up Hopson's hit with a fly ball to right field that was misplayed by the Lady Devils defense. Hopson scored on the error to tie the game at three with Henson standing at third base. Mary Deason unfortunately grounded out to Kirchdoerfer at shortstop, stranding Henson at third to end the inning and set up the heartbreaking eighth inning.

"We played pretty well," Chaffee head coach Shawn Powderly said. "Sikeston is much, much, much improved. They're a darn good ball team. We was able to overcome some adversity and they did also. We kind of fell apart in the seventh but we managed to squeeze one out and get a run in the eighth and hold on for a wild victory. They made it tough on us but we managed."

The Lady Devils pitcher, Madelyn Kiefer seemed to manage herself very well inside the circle. She went all eight innings allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits and three walks. She also struck out five.

"She's not overpowering by any means but she hits her spots," said Powderly. "She does a great job of keeping the batters off balance by working the ball inside and outside. She's a good pitcher."

Hannah Bedwell, who drove in the eventually game winning run in the top of the eighth, was the Lady Devils leading hitter with a triple and a double. She also drove in three runs for what Powderly said was one of his teams best offensive days.

"This is probably the best offensive game we've had," Powderly said. "We only scored four runs but we had a couple of girls hit the ball hard. As the game went on we had some big clutch hits and that's what's important in this game. We got a clutch hit when we needed it."

Sierra Miller added the other RBI for Chaffee. Miller also had two hits and two runs scored.