"We're the comeback kids!," Rising Sun's Alexa Hull exclaimed in the middle of her team's decisive seventh inning rally. Trailing 2-0 and down to their last out, the Tigers tallied seven runs to pull out a 7-2 triumph over host Perryville Monday, March 26. Emily Consiglio's three-run double put Rising Sun ahead 4-2 and Ally Bradford capped the uprising with a two-run homer to left-center.
Molly Dill pitched a perfect bottom of the seventh to seal the deal. "I've been preaching to these girls about staying positive and they really did stay positive there," Rising Sun coach Rusty Moore said. "And that's important because if you stay positive, then one thing leads to another, and then it's a snowball and then this huge avalanche effect. Now that's not going to happen every time. But [against Perryville] it did and we're happy for that." Perryville pitcher Mara Little breezed through six shutout innings before walking Dill to start the top of the seventh. The Tigers took advantage of two Perryville errors in the frame. With two outs, Taylor Mantyk singled to keep the Tigers' hopes alive. Perryville had two chances to end the game but failed to do so. Bella Barbato was safe at first when the Panthers were unable to get a force at second. With the bases loaded, Perryville mishandled a dribbler through the circle, allowing Mia Sexton to reach base and the Tigers to get on the board. That brought Emily Consiglio to the plate with the bases still loaded. Consiglio unloaded them. She whacked a three-run double down the left field line to give the Tigers a 4-2 edge. "Lot of pressure," Consiglio said of the at bat. "Hitting hasn't really been my strong suit, but I felt like it was something that I really needed to do and I had to pull it out and I'm pretty proud of what I accomplished." Rising Sun wasn't finished. Mackenzie Smith drilled a single to score Consiglio. The next batter, Bradford, smashed a shot into the left-center gap which rolled between Perryville outfielders. The two-run roundtripper raised Rising Sun's lead to 7-2. It took a while for the Tigers to get going. "I really believe [it is because] it's our first game experience this year," Rising Sun coach Rusty Moore said. "We didn't have any scrimmages. Our games got rained out last week. I think we just came out tight, and seeing live pitching like that other than our own team, they just needed to see somebody have success. And I think once they realized that this was just like any other game, like every other at bat, they really put things together." Added Moore: "I see them every day and I kept telling them between every inning, "We hit better than this. I know we can do better than this.' So, yeah, I was confident we could put the bat on the ball and put it in play. And when you do that, good things happen." Good things for Rising Sun. Not so much for the Panthers. "We just didn't close there," Perryville coach Dave Ruark said. "It's hard to explain how that happens. Not the first time you see one mistake turn into two. Then all of a sudden you get tight and you're thinking about not messing up versus 'I'm going to make the play that's going to end this game.' I think it got between our ears a little bit in that last inning." The Panthers had taken a 2-0 lead in the home half of the fourth. Ellen Little and Jordyn Reese each delivered a run-scoring double. Dill dominated from that point on, preventing Perryville from piling on more runs. "It's huge," said Moore. "We've been working with Molly on that, staying positive, staying up, and knowing that you have the ability to do that and just having confidence in yourself and she showed it." Little was saddled with the loss despite not allowing an earned run. "Mara was doing a great job, getting ahead early," said Ruark. "Obviously we didn't get many baserunners or get many opportunities in terms of expanding on that lead. She was just cruising the whole game. It seemed easy. [Then in the seventh], walk the leadoff hitter. I don't even remember how the second girl got on and then the parade of errors came." Ruark promises the Panthers will learn from their miscues. "It's the first game of the year so if you're going to look for teachable moments, a learning moment, this is a great time to do it," the coach said. "We can only go up from here…We look forward to getting better. We played a great game up until the last inning. All in all, I'd rather play six good innings and lose a game, then look miserable and win ugly. It's okay. We'll be fine." Rising Sun realizes it will need to be more consistent during the rest of the season. "We've got to keep pushing and keep working," Consiglio said. "We need to work on our pitch selection so we don't have to come down to another seventh inning rally like this again, start out strong from the beginning…I think it's just first game jitters and now that we realize we can do it, I feel like it's going to be a good season for us." Comments are closed.
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