By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Lockwood softball team didn’t record its first hit until the sixth inning and sent three different batters to the plate in the seventh with the Tigers just one out away from a season-ending loss at Liberal.
But sophomore Reese Whitesell smacked a bases-loaded single down the third-base line to score freshmen Molly Hedeman and Peyton Lasater and Lockwood earned a 2-1 walk-off win over the Bulldogs in the Class 1 District 6 championship.
“It’s incredible,” Lockwood coach Bobbi Abbiatti said. “These girls have worked so hard this whole season for this and they’re a very young group, we have one senior and all freshmen and sophomores. Liberal is a great team and we knew it was going to be a fight and a battle and we knew it would come down to the end. That’s how it came down last year in the district championship, right down to the end and Liberal beat us on that. It’s a good feeling to go out and beat a good team.”
Lockwood, the top seed, improved to 20-6 on the season and won a district title for the first time in program history––and the third district title this school year including volleyball and basketball.
“We get to be on the banner,” Abbiatti said. “The last time they were on the banner was for conference and we weren’t even in spring yet, it was 2005. This is a first for them.”
Until the very end, though, it looked like second-seeded Liberal was poised to win the rematch.
Senior Jordan Goodell smacked a home run to center field in the first inning––her 5th of the season––and then Goodell and the Bulldogs defense stymied the visitors most of the evening.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Goodell worked around two walks in the first, one in the second and one in the third and then retired nine straight batters. She didn’t allow a hit until there were two outs in the sixth inning and finished the game with 6 strikeouts.
Lockwood sophomore Kallie Griffin broke the no-hitter with a double and then sophomore Gracyn Clawson followed with a bloop single to put runners at the corners. Liberal escaped the jam with a groundout to shortstop.
Lockwood, the home team on the scoreboard, got things going in the bottom of the seventh when sophomore Jessie Thieman drew a 1-out walk and freshman Molly Hedeman bunted for a single. Thieman would be tagged out at third on a steal attempt, but Peyton Lasater drew a 2-out walk and then both runners advanced into scoring position with freshman Asa Lasater at the plate. After that, the Bulldogs intentionally walked her to load the bases for the left-handed hitter Whitesell, who teased her opposite field ability with a hard foul ball down the left field line.
And then Whitesell connected on a pitch and drilled it right over the third-base bag to win the game.
“She comes this way a lot,” Abbiatti said. “When they shifted their defense they knew this is the way she goes. She had a nice hard hit.”
“They were very nervous,” Abbiatti said of the Tigers in the final inning. “Something about this team is every game they play all the way through. They never give up. Even when we’ve been down they’ve come back and won games or stayed in them. That’s just part of who they are this year.”
Lockwood’s Griffin pitched for the Tigers and recorded 12 strikeouts. She allowed the homer and a single in the first and then just two singles the rest of the game while retiring the final 13 batters she faced.
“She did a great job pitching and always comes through for us, always hits the spots,” Abbiatti said. “Behind the plate we’ve got Peyton and they really work well together. Our defense stepped it up.”
Liberal finished the season with a 17-10 record in coach BJ Goodell’s final year at the helm before taking over Neosho’s softball program.
“It was a really good year,” Goodell said. “I’m so proud of these kids. We lost a ton of kids last year, seven or eight starters, and for these kids to come out and work and put together 17 wins just was a great year for them. I’m really proud of them.”
“I’ve just been proud of what these kids have accomplished,” she said. “We went to the jamboree and we didn’t look very good. They put in work and I don’t know that I’ve ever had a group work as hard as they have to get better. I think that’s why it stings this year to lose it and of course being the final game here on the field and in Liberal makes it even worse. I’m just so proud of the effort they’ve given and the year Jordan’s had and all of them. On both sides of the field she was phenomenal this year. Got her 700th strikeout the other night and to be in this one and no-hit these guys for as long as she did, I really thought we were going to get a pretty cool 1-0 win.”
Lockwood will take on 20-7 Purdy in a Class 1 quarterfinal on May 20.
