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Portageville overcomes shaky offense, downs Jefferson 1-0 in Class 2 sectional
PORTAGEVILLE -- The offense hasn't been there, but Portageville keeps finding ways to forge ahead.
The way has been through the arm of Taylor Tiffany, who yet again pitched a shutout while her team did just enough to scratch out a run.
Portageville edged visiting Jefferson 1-0 Wednesday during a Class 2 sectional at Dr. James A. Deere Field in Portageville behind a one-hit shutout from Tiffany.
The all-state hurler struck out 18 batters while Portageville's offense had just one hit. It's the second straight game their offense has struggled, which includes a hitless performance against Kelly during the Class 2, District 1 championship game that was won due to a seventh inning error.
"Another nail-biter," Portageville coach Ashlie Patton said about the offense. "We told the girls they can't do this many more times and get a way with it. The further we go, the better the teams get. We need to step our game up. We've gotten away with it this far."
Much of Portageville's hitting woes were the result of Tiffany's counterpart.
Jefferson pitcher Sarah Handrahan had Portageville's lineup whiffing on her riseball and it wasn't a secret. The Lady Bulldogs knew that was Handrahan's bread and butter but still struggled to hold back.
"They threw a lot of up-pitches. That killed us," Tiffany said. "We came in Tuesday and worked on up-pitches because our coaches scouted for us. But, it killed us because we couldn't lay off of them. That was our problem this game."
Portageville (23-5) struck out 12 times and put up one hit against Handrahan, which was a harmless two-out single by Destiney Crossno in the fifth inning.
"We worked on that in practice and we had a plan," Patton said about Handrahan's riseball. "We knew she liked the riseball and we worked on laying off of it and our girls didn't do that. You have to do what you work on practice."
Although Portageville's single stroke of offense did not result in it's lone run, they did take full advantage of the limited opportunities that arose.
Mikayla Rone led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a deep fly ball to left field. Jefferson's Jill Akins was fooled by the tailing action the ball took towards the foul line and the ball hit off the edge of her glove and rolled to the left field fence. That gave Rone plenty of time to trot into second base with no outs.
Tiffany laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded by Handrahan, but the toss to the plate was not in time to catch Rone.
"One thing are girls are good at is taking advantage of their errors," Patton said. "They see it when it happens and they take advantage of it."
Playing mistake-free softball was an area of emphasis for coach Melanie Ruggly, who knew that errors wouldn't fly against the caliber of pitcher that Jefferson (16-9) was facing.
"We talked about making mistakes in this postseason that's what wins or losses games," Ruggly said. "Hats off to (Portageville). They put the ball in play a little bit more than we did and it worked out in their favor."
After Portageville gained its lead, Tiffany struck out eight of the last 10 batters to polish off the win. Jefferson's Alli Batts laced a single into left field for her team's only hit in the fifth, but no other damage was done.
But there was a near scare.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Handrahan squared up a Tiffany fastball that went sailing down the left field line. The hard-hit ball started tailing just as it reached the fence as Handrahan missed a potential game-tying home run by a few feet. Jefferson's No. 1 pitcher popped out on the next pitch for the first out of the inning, while Tiffany struck out the next two batters to end the game.
"Hitting in that last at-bat, I tell her she's clutch," Ruggly said about Handrahan. "It did go foul but her approach, she was ready. I'm proud of her and she did the best she could."
Tiffany fanned eight of Jefferson's first nine batters and had 10 strikeouts the first four innings. She pushed her record up to 22-4 on the year.
"We prepared as well as we could against Taylor. She's just a great pitcher and everybody knows that," Ruggly said. "She's a competitor and she did her job and did it well. Unfortunately, she just beat us as hitters and we couldn't make the adjustment."
Tiffany's 18 strikeouts Wednesday upped her season total to 373. She's 18 strikeouts away from breaking the Missouri single season strikeout record that she set a season ago.
"She was on today," Patton said. "You can see it in her eyes when she steps up. You know it's going to be a good day, which is mostly every day. She's competitive."
One run of cushion was all the senior needed, but Tiffany understands that won't always be the case.
"(Our bats) are down," Tiffany said. "But, we just need to come in and focus more. We need to take our practice into the game... We just try to stay in it the whole game because you never know. They could come back in the seventh inning and score one. You never know."
Portageville moves on to its second straight quarterfinal appearance on Saturday, but their opponent is still unknown.
John F. Kennedy and Bowling Green's sectional game was suspended until Thursday at 3:30 p.m., due to darkness on the unlit field. That game was tied 1-1 in the top of the 14th inning when play was stopped.
Portageville will host its quarterfinal this weekend if John F. Kennedy wins but will be on the road if Bowling Green pulls out the victory.
"It's really great and I'm excited," said Tiffany. "I can't wait for Saturday. Hopefully, JFK wins so we can have it here. But, either way, we're just ready to go."
Jefferson 000 000 0 -- 0 1 1
Portageville 000 100 x -- 1 1 0
WP -- Taylor Tiffany. LP -- Sarah Handrahan.