Tipp’s Ella Henn battled for eight innings on survive repeated Bethel rallies…then struck the winning hit in the bottom of the eight to win the game. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
It’s why so many people show up to watch a softball game. Wild and woolly, you never know what’s going to happen. And Tipp proved it with a four-run comeback in the bottom of the eighth to beat Bethel.
Tipp City, OH – Someone beside me mentioned it in the top of the first inning Wednesday: “You never know what’s going to happen in softball. There’s more action than baseball and no lead is safe.”
That person could have been an Old Testament prophet for their ability to predict the future, because over the next two hours the Tipp Red Devils(11-1) squandered three leads…fell behind…then came back to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh to send it extra innings…then fell behind 14-11 in the top of the eight…and then came back with four runs in the bottom of the eighth to eventually beat cross-county rival Bethel (4-8)…15-14!
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“And I told the girls that I was proud of them for not only battling back to tie the game in the seventh inning…but I was even more proud of them for scoring four runs in the bottom of the eighth to win the game,” said Red Devils coach Mike Munns.
Boy, howdy!
And credit, too, in the same fashion to the Bethel girls for battling back three times, starting with a three-run deficit in the second inning, to give themselves an equal chance of winning the game…in one of the more ironic pitching duels (?) you see in softball. For the name of the game in this sport ‘is’ pitching – dominant pitching – and often pitching that’s so good that a single run stands to be the difference in the game. Softball games, unlike baseball, are known to take less than an hour to play.
Bethel’s Alyson Bird locked up in the pitching duel with Tipp’s Ella Henn…that produced 29 runs on 38 hits, and a nail-biter finish.
But this one was different. Tipp’s Ella Henn and Bethel’s Alyson Bird battled back and forth for the entire game…not in dominating fashion, but in limiting fashion…as neither could hold a lead and simply did the best they could to keep the opposing batter order off base.
Tipp jumped out to a 3-run lead in the bottom of the first, and for the first six Bethel outs Henn did look dominant.
But Bethel strung together a pair of hits around an error to score three in the third to tie the game at 3-3.
Tipp came back in the bottom of the third to score twice and take a 5-3 lead.
Bethel came back in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 5-5.
Tipp scored twice in the bottom of the fourth to again go ahead, 7-5.
Typically you see a lot of strikeouts in the softball…but while there were strikeouts in this game, there were even more line drives to the gaps and wind-aided fly balls that drove fielders to the fence. Only three times in the game did either team retire the other in order – Tipp getting Bethel 1,2,3 in the first and the seventh, and Bethel getting Tipp 1,2,3 in the bottom of the second.
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In the top of the fifth Bethel again scored a pair of runs to tie the score at 7-7.
But in the bottom of the fifth Tipp again strung together a pair of hits and took a 9-7 lead.
But in the sixth…Bethel AGAIN answered with their biggest inning of the game, 4 runs to go up 11-9, their first lead of the game.
Wild and woolly…the wind was blowing, making every fly ball a challenge.
But not for long.
While they finally retired Tipp in the bottom of the sixth without scoring, the Red Devils would come back in the bottom of the seventh to score twice before Alyson Bird could close out the win…and tied the game at 11 to send it to extra innings.
In the top of the eighth Bethel parlayed a leadoff error by Tipp first baseman Minnie Miller and three consecutive singles by Lily Williams, Ryleigh Fisher, and Paige Kearns to post a stunning three runs and what looked like the crushing blow…a 14-11 lead.
But Tipp, again, was undaunted.
They started in the bottom of the eighth with a single by Miller. Then another single by Charlize Clausen. Stella Leos followed with a third straight single to drive in a run and cut the lead to 14-12. After a an infield fly for the first out, Emma Davis stepped to the plate and singled to drive in Clausen, cutting the margin to 14-13.
It brought Ella Henn to the plate with the irony of winning her own game with a hit far enough to score two of the runners on base – to do what she had been unable to do all day on the pitching mound.
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“I was a little nervous, but I believe in my team,” said Henn. “And as soon as we started hitting in the eighth I knew that we were going to come around and go ahead.”
She slapped at a Alyson Bird fastball right down the middle and pushed it to right field, slicing toward the line. Out of reach for anyone to catch, the only question was…where would it land? As it happened it hit right on the foul line, a fair ball. It scored both runners on base, with Emma Davis touching home plate for the winning run…15-14.
Tipp’s Emma Davis touches home plate with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.
“I really thought the ball was foul,” said Henn, her pitching arm wrapped in post-game ice. “I wasn’t thinking about the situation because that makes you get stressed out. I just tried to hit the ball and hoped for the best.”
Of course.
Tipp won it with 15 runs on 22 hits, and committed 4 errors.
Bethel lost it with 14 runs on 16 hits and committed 6 errors.
Between the two teams…29 runs on 38 hits.
“It was very frustrating to give up all those leads,” Henn added, with a big winning smile. “But you know, when we started getting hits it made me more confident about going out there. I knew we would get back in the game.”
But she didn’t know – no one knew – that it would turn out the way it did – that Ella Henn would have a chance to win her own game. Not on the mound, but at the plate.
Never a dull moment.
No lead is safe in softball!
Bethel’s Ellie Larkins scores in a cloud of dust to score in the third inning of Wednesday’s game with Tipp.
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