By Dana Harding
Fair Grove, Mo. — When she was needed the most, Hannah Breedlove delivered.
The Plato senior crushed a ninth-inning, two-run homer to propel the Blue Lady Eagles to a 7-5 win over Fair Grove Friday evening in the District 8 semifinal.
When asked about her thoughts leading up to the big moment, Breedlove drew motivation from last season’s 6-5 quarterfinal loss to West County.
“I had so much anger from last year,” Breedlove said. “I knew I had to put something into play. I wasn’t even looking for a home run. I just wanted to put it into play somewhere so we could score at least one person.”
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Plato head coach Cody Bansemer knew the timing was right for Breedlove’s big moment.
“I told her right before she went to the plate, ‘You’ve trained your whole career for this … seize the moment and trust your training’” Bansemer said. “She did, and she delivered. She took that high, inside pitch all the way to deep center field, and we’ve worked on it and worked on it. That’s probably my proudest moment of the season.”
Breedlove’s heroics were only made possible after a final rally from Fair Grove spoiled Plato’s regulation bid..
Down 5-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth, the purple Lady Eagles came storming back and finally got to Plato starter Kaitin Garrett.
Fair Grove scored one in the sixth off a Shyann Proctor double, and then erupted for four runs in the seventh. A 3-run blast from Cailey Barnes tied the game at 5-5 and forced extra innings.
Fair Grove head coach Tara Whetzell urged her senior leadoff hitter to focus on contact, but was overjoyed to see the ball fly out to and over the center field wall.
“Cailey Barnes stepped up,” Whetzell said. “I just went up there and told her, ‘I do not want a home run; I want you hitting.’ I didn’t expect the home run there, but we took it. That got us fired up to finish it.”
Up until that point, Garrett had been nothing short of sensational.
The sophomore right-hander notched 11 strikeouts and zero walks in the contest, allowing only a single hit and two baserunners through the first five innings.
Garrett faltered late, however, losing confidence in her arsenal of pitches that had overwhelmed Fair Grove’s potent lineup up to that point.
“After they got a couple hits, I got a little shook,” Garrett said. “I got a little nervous, and it did come apart. After [Barnes] hit the home run, I knew I needed to tighten it up and get it back together, so I just stood at the back of the circle for a second, gathered my thoughts and told myself I needed to get these outs.”
While Bansemer made a visit to the circle during Garrett’s struggles with another standout pitcher available in Breedlove, a switch wasn’t on his mind at all.
“Kaitin … I have no doubt in her abilities, and I would never pull her from a game like that,” Bansemer said. “It looked like they were able to time her better, which most teams aren’t able to do. I knew I wanted her to just settle down and, if we could just get through our 8-9-1 and back to the middle of our lineup, we were going to do something.”
Garrett righted the ship and threw two additional scoreless innings to preserve the win. Her 3-5 night at the plate included 1 RBI and a key seventh-inning single prior to Breedlove’s blast.
Breedlove went 2-4 with 3 RBI, and catcher Allie Hall went 1-3 with a first-inning, inside-the-park home run that plated a pair of runs during Plato’s four-run first inning.
With the victory, Plato earns a shot at redemption in the district title game.
Saturday’s championship pits the Lady Eagles (14-3) in a rematch against top seed Strafford (20-1).
The Lady Indians downed Plato 11-1 three weeks ago during the regular season.
Varsity Final: Plato – 7, Fair Grove – 5
Plato 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 — 7
Fair Grove 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 — 5
Hits: Plato – 8, Fair Grove – 8
Errors: Plato – 2, Fair Grove – 5
LOB: Plato – 10,Fair Grove – 5
WP – Kaitin Garrett (9.00 IP, 11K, 8H, 0BB)
Time of game: 2:18
