BENTON – On paper, it looks like the game went pretty much as expected. The reality is Tippecanoe Valley played one of its better softball games of the season in the Class 3A Fairfield Sectional before everything fell apart. The Lady Vikings were hanging tough with NorthWood, trailing just 4-1 after four innings and looking like they might be poised to pull an upset. But the Lady Panthers exploded for seven runs in the fifth inning to win by the run rule, 11-1, Monday night. With both teams looking for a spark, NorthWood got it in the fifth when sophomore Alexis Klotz blasted a no-doubt three-run homer to right center to make it a 7-1 ballgame. “The home run shifted everything,” Valley head coach Daryl Shoemaker said. “Up until that point, we thought everything was looking pretty good. After the game when we talked, the girls said ‘after the home run, everything just changed.’ That’s how momentum works. Fast forward and ‘boom’ it’s a 10-run game.” NorthWood added four more runs , two of which came on Summer Stillson’s second triple of the game. Arika Flickinger’s single to center plated Stillson with the game-ending run. Shoemaker said he was pleased with his team’s performance overall. The Lady Vikings collected eight base hits, had the leadoff batter on in the first four innings, and only struck out twice; those came in the fifth inning. Valley was charged with three errors, two of which cost the team runs, but for the most part they kept NorthWood from taking extra bases and running at will. “It was everything we expected, and knew they could do. We’d been showing bits, or glimpses, lately. We’ve been cutting our errors down, we’ve been hitting better in situations,” Shoemaker said. “We did the same thing this year that we did last year; we actually came in and played a good game in the sectional (after a rough regular season).” Katie Gunter, in her final game as a Lady Viking, gave her team everything she had. She was struggling physically during warmups, according to Shoemaker, and took a line drive off her pitching hand in the second inning. “Considering the circumstances; yes, this was one of the best games we’ve played all year,” he said. “Gunter couldn’t feel her arm; when she was warming up before the game she couldn’t feel it, and couldn’t tell where the ball was going. We thought we may get two or three innings out of her.” It would have helped the Valley cause considerably to add a key hit with runners in scoring position, something the Lady Vikes did just once in the contest. Shoemaker gave credit to NorthWood pitcher Hannah Stickley for coming up with the big out when she needed it. “I’d have to say that, after winning one of our last 10 coming into this, that this was a pretty good time to pull everybody together like you should. We made a lot of contact, but if I remember right it was popups, it was grounders, things like that. “So our hitters were hitting but not hitting her square, and that’s probably a testament to what she was throwing. It was moving right or into a spot where she wanted it.” Valley finished the season with a 7-16 record. NorthWood will play Wawasee in a sectional semifinal today.
