Trinity Lutheran’s Jasmine McCormick scores as the ball gets away from Hauser catcher Haylin Campbell in the third inning of Tuesday’s game. Watching the play is Trinity coach Bob Tabeling. The Cougars won 5-4.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Trinity Lutheran’s Madison Keith and Hauser first baseman Maley Jordan watch the batter during the third inning of Tuesday’s game. Keith had two hits, two RBI and scored a run to help the Cougars win 5-4.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Coach Bob Tabeling called Trinity Lutheran’s 5-4 softball win over Hauser on Tuesday the Cougars’ best victory of the season.
He said the win ranks right up there with Trinity’s victory over West Washington in the regional last year.
“We beat a good team. They’ve always been a strong team,” Tabeling said. “They are well-coached, well-disciplined. They do the little things extremely well. Today, we were just a little bit better. Both teams gave up several unearned runs. We manufactured some early. We really had a complete game. Our hitting was against a very good pitcher, one (Paige McDaniel) that dominated us last year in the semistate. We came out and put the ball in play and manufactured some runs and ended up with a victory at the end of the day.”
Hauser came into Tuesday’s game with a 13-3 record and was ranked No. 6 in the state in Class 1A.
The Cougars didn’t let those numbers bother them as they either led or were tied the whole game.
The Cougars scored in the bottom of the first when Bailey Tabeling led off with a double over the third baseman’s head. She advanced to third on Grace Lance’s sacrifice bunt. Madison Keith struck out, but the Jets had to throw to first for the out and Tabeling scored on the throw.
After the Jets used two errors and a hit to tie the game in the top of the third, the Cougars sent seven batters to the plate in the bottom of the third and three of them scored.
Jasmine McCormick led off the third by reaching first base safely on an error. After Rowan Sharp sacrificed McCormick to second, Tabeling was safe on a fielder’s choice. Keith singled to drive in McCormick and Tabeling scored when the throw to the plate got past the catcher.
Keith advanced to second on the play, she moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when the Jets committed their third error of the inning.
“They got frazzled and made a couple errors in the middle of the game and those errors cost them some runs, and we turned around and did them a little bit of a favor and did it ourselves,” coach Tabeling said. “When you’re playing a good team like that it’s a lot of pressure and everybody wants to make that play. I thought we were really aggressive all day. We didn’t have any situations where we were timid or backing away from a ball. Everybody was playing hard and playing aggressive.”
The Jets bunched three hits, a walk and a Trinity error to score three runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game at 4-4.
Tabeling tripled with one out in the bottom of the fifth and scored on a single by Keith to complete the scoring.
Tabeling and Keith both had two hits, Tabeling scored three runs, and Keith and McCormick each scored one, and Keith had two RBI.
Coach Tabeling said Lance did a fine job on the mound as she gave up six hits, four runs of which two were earned, she walked three and struck out two. Hannah Taylor, who played travel ball with Bailey Tabeling, had three hits, one RBI and scored one run to lead the Jets’ offense.
“We got extremely good pitching from Grace, and the defense behind her supported her. We’re 19 games into the season, she’s thrown every inning and looked extremely strong in the seventh,” coach Tabeling said. “That was what we needed. It was a great game.”
Trinity is 11-8 and will travel to Borden on Friday and host Brownstown Central Saturday morning.