Sixth-inning rally gives Warriors victory
Marion-Florence/Peabody-Burns Warriors softball team scored 32 runs in four games this past week, but lost three of four to fall to 4-8 on the season.
The team did salvage the week with an 11-10 victory Friday against Sterling, which included an eight-run sixth inning. In game one against the Black Bears the Warriors fell in a close one, 6-4.
In the opening game Allie Maddox led off the second inning with a walk and later scored on a wild pitch to give MFPB a 1-0 lead. Sterling answered with two runs in the third, and one more in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. Three more Black Bear runs in the sixth seemed to put the game out of reach at 6-1.
But the Warriors fought back in the final inning.
Morgan Cady, Sonja Steinborn, and Frankie Clarke all hit singles to lead off the inning. Kari Tajchman and Maddox made the first two outs of the inning before Jandee Sharp walked and Erica Geis singled. Kara Holt then grounded out to shortstop and the rally was over.
It took a while, but the Warriors' bats heated up in game two, as MFPB squeaked out a one-run victory.
After scoring just three runs in the first five innings and trailing 10-3, the Warriors scored eight runs in the sixth inning and played good defense in the seventh inning.
Austin Percell started the rally with a single and scored the first and last runs of the inning.
Cady and Lana Carroll both doubled and five runs had scored before the Warriors recorded their first out.
"I told the girls they can lay down and die or do something about it," head coach Charlotte Waner said just before the big inning. "They came out fired up and hit the ball."
Steinborn recorded the victory on the mound. Despite surrendering 10 runs, only two earned, she had a season-high 13 strikeouts.
"Sonja is doing a great job out there," Waner said. "We just have to back her up."
Tajchman, Geis, and Percell led the team with two hits each.
The Warriors are now 4-8 on the season, with 10 games remaining on the regular season schedule.
Waner knows her team can win more games, but the intensity at the end of games has to start earlier, she said.
"We have to start strong and finish strong," she said. "We have to get everyone doing their job."
