Wolverines make statement, top A.C. Reynolds 4-2

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Laughter permeated Polk County’s postgame huddle Thursday afternoon.

A six-game winning streak will bring a few smiles and chuckles.

The Wolverines continued their recent victory run, topping A.C. Reynolds 4-2 in a nonconference softball matchup at Polk.

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Head coach Jamie Thompson had envisioned the matchup in the second half of the season as a test of Polk County’s standing heading into the final six games of the conference schedule.

Safe to say, Polk County (10-4) passed.

“When I scheduled this game early on, I could see they were going to be a tough team to beat,” Thompson said. “I penciled this in as a statement game for us, and it was.

“We didn’t play perfectly, but we played good enough to win.”

Reynolds (9-4) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on Kyleigh Roland’s RBI single to right, but Polk County immediately answered in the bottom half of the inning.

Allie Thompson legged out an infield single to open the inning, with Ansley Lynch following with a line drive off the base of the fence in left-center, moving Thompson to third. Haley Fowler’s single to center brought home Thompson to even the score at 1-1.

Maranda Gosnell then drilled a double to center that drove in Lynch and courtesy runner Emily Prince to give Polk a 3-1 advantage.

The Rockets added a run in the fourth to make it 3-2, then had a golden opportunity for another in the top of the sixth snuffed by Polk County’s defense. With two outs and runners on first and second, Roland drilled a line drive that a leaping Gosnell managed to slow and deflect into shallow left field.

Reynolds’ Jessica Utter attempted to score from second, but Gosnell tracked down the ball and fired a strike to catcher Autumn Owen, who tagged out Utter at the plate to end the inning.

Polk then added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with no outs and scoring on a bases-loaded walk to Fowler.

“We had the big inning where we scored the three runs, and then we got the other one that was important for us,” Thompson said. “We’ve got the hitting power to string some hits together and put runs on the board.”

Fowler finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Morgan Stott was also 2-for-3 and scored a run. Gosnell was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Lynch also finished 2-for-4.

Fowler scattered six hits and struck out three to earn the win.

Polk County began its homestretch of conference games on Friday, traveling to Mitchell.

-Submitted by PolkSports.com