.jpg)
Sophomore Victoria Hamilton hit a walk-off grand slam to lift the Parry Mc-Cluer High School softball team to a 12-10 home win over Pioneer District rival Eastern Montgomery on Tuesday of last week in Lexington.
The Fighting Blues (9-6 overall, 4-2 district) were down 10-7 in the bottom of the seventh, but Logan Vest reached first base on a dropped third strike, Autumn Mundy singled on a grounder, and Olivia Julian hit a grounder to center field to drive in Vest. With one out, Gracey Shafer singled on a grounder to load the bases, setting up Hamilton to belt her four-run home run over the left field fence. The home crowd reacted with excited cheering and celebrating.
“It couldn’t have happened in a better spot,” said PM head coach Troy Clark of the home run.
With the win, the Blues completed a sweep of the regular-season series with the Mustangs, who ended the week at 8-10 overall and 3-5 in the district. When the teams met on April 5 at EM, the Blues won 11-8.
In the rematch, the Blues led 7-0 after scoring six runs in the fourth inning, but they struggled after starting pitcher Claudia Coleman went out with an injury that inning.
The Mustangs rallied by scoring four runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to tie the game 7-7. EM took its first lead in the top of the seventh when Riley Kochel hit a grounder to drive in Mary Miller, and MacKenzie Hubbard walked with the bases loaded to bring home Sophia Vishneki, making it 9-7. Alexis Artrip then scored on a fly ball past second base by Allison Bower to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 10-7.
After giving up two outs in the bottom half of the inning, the Blues answered with their late-game rally.
Throughout the game, the Blues struggled with five errors, while the Mustangs committed one.
Hamilton and Julian led the Blues with two hits each.
Following Coleman’s injury, Julian pitched the remainder of the game to earn the save.
Relieved to get the win, PM head coach Troy Clark said, “We did not play well defensively, with a lot of errors, but the thing I’m most proud of is at the end, after making all those errors, we could’ve folded up tent, and we didn’t.”
Clark said he was proud of the way his girls fought to battle back. “Sometimes, you’ve got to have things go wrong before you can figure out what you need to do,” he said. “We battled. That was the main thing.”
The Blues suffered a 10-0 road loss to Nelson County (9-6) in nondistrict action on Friday.
PM was scheduled to conclude the regular season with a home game against Craig County on Monday.
The Blues will compete in the Pioneer District tournament next week. For the schedule and updates, visit www.thenews-gazette.com.
