Lady Hawks get back on track with 7-5 win over Lake Center
Hiland finally righted itself, having dropped six straight after winning its first two games of the season, by getting the best of Lake Center 7-5 on a blustery Friday, April 15.
What looked like a walk in the park turned into a nail-biter in the seventh inning. Leading 7-1, reliever Virginia Keim found trouble as she gave up a couple hits and walked three. Up 7-4 with the bases loaded, Keim was relieved by starting pitcher Maryssa Mast, who promptly walked the first hitter she faced, forcing in a run to make it 7-5. However, Mast got out of further trouble by getting a ground ball back to her for the out of the game, securing the victory.
“We played pretty well and we had the game in hand for the most part,” said Hiland coach Jill Lyons. “We felt like we needed to rest Maryssa because we have a busy schedule coming up, and we wanted to get Virginia some work. It did get a little closer than maybe we would have liked, but we have wanted to get the girls into a pressure situation like that to see how they responded, and they came through.”
While Hiland managed only five hits on the day, they did a lot of watching at the plate, with Lake Center’s pitcher Jessica Floyd walking a dozen Lady Hawks hitters. Lyons said that when a team faces a pitcher who throws that many balls, it is tough to get into any kind of offensive rhythm.
Kate Hershberger and Mast led the Hawks attack with a pair of singles each, with Hershberger driving in a run. Kate Yoder got the other Hiland hit, and drove in three runs.
On the mound, Mast tossed five and one-third innings, giving up five hits, walking two and striking out eight. Keim allowed three hits, walked three and gave up four runs in an inning and two-thirds.