SOFTBALL: Wolverines outlast Bearcats 18-16 in wild conference slugfest
Published 1:22 pm Wednesday, March 22, 2023
- Polk County's Elizabeth Vitale homered and had three hits in Tuesday's win
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Tuesday in Hendersonville proved a good day to be a hitter.
Polk County won the wildest of Mountain Foothills 7 Conference softball games, outlasting Hendersonville 18-16 to score its first league win of the season.
Polk County improved to 4-4, 1-2 with the victory. Hendersonville dropped to 2-3, 0-1.
How it happened: Where to even begin?
Polk County raced to a 14-0 lead after three and a half innings. The Wolverines pushed across three runs in the first, two of those on an Elizabeth Vitale home run, then tallied twice in the second inning on Chloe Young’s two-run single.
The Wolverines racked up five runs in the third inning, with Mia Bradley smacking a two-run double and Young blasting a solo homer, and added four runs in the top of the fourth, Junie Mitchell’s two-run double highlighting that rally.
Then came the bottom of the fourth and a remarkable 11-run rally from the Bearcats, who sent 15 batters to the plate in trimming the deficit to 14-11.
Hendersonville pulled within 14-12 after five innings, but Polk pushed the margin back to three runs as Mitchell singled and scored on a Bradley single.
The Bearcats responded with four runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 16-15 advantage, but back came Polk County in the seventh. An error and two walks loaded the bases, and Katelyn Arrowood tied the game with a run-scoring grounder.
With two outs, Mitchell then delivered a two-run single that proved to be the game-winning hit.
Hendersonville got the tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh, but the Bearcats could not push a run across the plate to prevent a Polk win.
Whew.
At the plate: Young finished 4-for-5 with a double, homer and four RBI. Vitale was 3-for-4 with a home run, Bradley was 3-for-5 with four RBI and Mitchell finished 3-for-5 with four RBI.
Sarah Vitale added a 3-for-5 day, with Kayleigh Wilson finishing 2-for-4 with a double. Arrowood, Amberlyn Scruggs and Laney Littlefield each added a hit.
That’s 21 hits.
Next up: Polk County will host Landrum on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Polk County Recreation Complex.