Pleasant Grove lost its footing and fell short against Pittsburg by a single run, 9-8, on the Lady Hawks' Senior Night Tuesday at PG.
"That was a better ball game for us," said Hawks head coach Becca Collom. " As of late we've been trying to get on track and that was a better complete ball game. I want to see the defense get cleaned up a bit."
With no outs and one on in the top of the sixth stanza, the Lady Pirates' McKenna Wood launched the ball over the center wall to score herself and Trinity Aycock, taking the lead and all the momentum from Pleasant Grove.
The Hawks established a five-run cushion in the opening inning. Kaylee Kelly and Bre Jones scored the first two runs after Emily Hilton hit a single to right field to bring them home. Kristin Key followed suit with a two-RBI single of her own to right to score Maddie Horn and Hilton. Key came home herself as well off a wild pitch, 5-0 Hawks.
Pittsburg found a response to Pleasant Grove's explosive opening in the top of the third frame when McKenna Wood smacked a double down the left foul line which allowed Tori Henderson to cross home plate. Three pitches later Wood dashed home after a wild pitch to cut the margin down to three.
Kelly answered back for the Hawks in the bottom of the third with a single to left field to score Zoe Smith, 6-2 Pleasant Grove.
The Pirates' play persisted in the fourth with the addition of two more runs, cutting the host's lead down to two. The first was a single by Destini Torry that brought Abby Hammands home. The second was a sacrifice fly by Henderson that gave Natalie Styles time to circle back to home plate. Both Hammands and Styles got on base due to errors committed by the Hawks.
"We left too many plays out there that either we didn't make or just straight up errors," Collom said. "We kind of sat on those five runs when we could have done more. We left too many runners on base but we got good hits and we made good plays but we just made too many errors to come out on top."
Key stole a little of Pittsburg's momentum, hitting the ball over the left field wall for a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, and extended the lead by to three, 7-4 Hawks.
In the sixth frame, Pittsburg continued to put pressure on Pleasant Grove, starting with Kyra Mason hit a single to right to get on first. Another Hawk error followed to move Henderson on to first. Trinity Aycock brought her teammates home with a double to deep left field. Wood hit her one-on homer to close out the sixth and give the Pirates the lead 8-7. Mason added one more run to the Pittsburg total in the final inning, dashing home after a wild pitch.
"Late there we had two of my kids who were at the bottom of the line up come up with strokes on the ball," said coach Collom. "That was nice; clutch, to keep us going in the ball game."
The Hawks final inning started well with Lexi Snyder sending the ball down left center field for a double. Alex Norton mirrored her teammate hitting the ball through right center to score Snyder, 9-8 Pirates. However, ten pitches later the game was over.