Softball: Oregon pulls out 11-inning pitcher’s duel over Dixon

DIXON – For 10 innings they battled, back and forth, two of the top softball teams in the Big Northern Conference trading blows and big outs in a pitcher’s duel Tuesday at Reynolds Park.

But in the 11th, Oregon managed to score a run on a two-out error, and Dixon couldn’t answer in the bottom of the inning as the Hawks pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Duchesses.

“It was just a fantastic high school ballgame, I don’t know what else to say,” Oregon coach Nate Rogers said. “Just a great game. I’m proud of the girls for fighting for 11 innings, and give Dixon credit, too. Just fantastic.”

Reilee Suter’s two-run home run with two outs in the top of the third gave Oregon a 2-0 lead, but Dixon answered in the bottom of the fourth when Sam Tourtillott and Anna Kate Phillips scored on wild pitches to tie the game 2-2.

Then, Dixon’s Elle Jarrett and Oregon’s Mia Trampel threw up zero after zero on the scoreboard, getting key outs to escape jams while mixing in a few 1-2-3 innings as well.

Jarrett finished with 14 strikeouts and didn’t walk a Hawk hitter, allowing two earned runs and seven hits.

“I was just thinking about how much I want to win,” Jarrett said about performing in the circle in high-pressure situations. “I just had to make the next pitch, we just had to make the next play and go back on offense.”

Trampel struck out 13 and walked four – two of them intentional passes to Tourtillott in the seventh and ninth innings with the potential winning run on third base for the Duchesses. Trampel got a pop out in the seventh, then Phillips’ hard liner in the ninth was hit right to Oregon right fielder Katelyn Bowers to end that threat.

Trampel allowed two earned runs and eight hits, hitting a batter and throwing the two wild pitches.

“It’s taking a deep breath and kind of making sure the fielders are all going to work together and just play an amazing game,” she said. “For me, I use the pressure and stress to kind of fuel my pitching, so in a way, it kind of helped.

“And I’m so thankful to have my teammates behind me. I really couldn’t pitch as well as I do without them.”

Her defense made all the difference, and at least four sensational plays thwarted Dixon rallies – and in one case, literally took two runs off the board.

With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth, Tourtillott singled with two outs and Phillips followed with a shot deep to center field. Oregon’s Bella Koertner kept going back until she was at the fence, and she snagged Phillips’ fly ball for the third out before tumbling over the fence.

Koertner also made a diving catch in shallow center field in the second inning, and third baseman Ella Dannhorn and second baseman Jesse Suter also made running catches on pop flies that looked destined to find a gap in the Hawks defense.

“Ella’s catch was insane,” Reilee Suter said. “That boosted us even more, because it was such a great catch. Obviously we were pumped about that, and when they got runners on base, we just shook it off and moved to the next play.”

“We just had to keep moving forward,” Jarrett said about Dixon’s reaction to the Oregon web gems. “We knew they were going to make plays and we were going to make plays, so they make the next play, then it’s our turn.”

Suter’s home run in the third inning came right after the running catch by Dannhorn and the diving catch by Koertner. Lena Trampel singled after a long at-bat, then Ava Hackman bunted her to second. Mia Trampel grounded out to move her sister to third, then Suter crushed an 0-1 pitch deep over the center field fence.

“It was like in the perfect spot for me, and I got good contact,” she said. “That gave us a lot of energy, picked us up a lot, because we needed the runs.”

“Elle was hitting her spots all game, right where we called them,” Dixon coach Candi Rogers said. “That home run, that’s the one pitch where she missed her spot.”

Dixon (8-3, 6-3 BNC) responded soon after, as Tourtillott and Phillips smacked consecutive singles to start the bottom of the fourth, then Jarrett drew a walk to load the bases. Both wild pitches occurred while Izzi McCommons was up to bat, then she eventually drew a walk and took second without a throw to put two runners in scoring position with nobody out.

But just like she had in the third – when Dixon’s Ava Valk was hit by a pitch and Olivia Mowery beat out an infield single to start the inning – Mia Trampel struck out the next three hitters to escape without further damage.

She stranded 11 Dixon runners on base, six of them at second or third – including those runners on third in the seventh and ninth, when the Duchesses couldn’t get that key two-out hit to win the game.

“They made some great plays, but we have to execute timely hitting,” Rogers said. “A couple times we had runners on base and we didn’t come through, and we have to have those timely hits.”

“Very nerve-wracking,” Reilee Suter said about those late-game situations. “We talk a lot about getting out of our heads, because getting in your head does nothing but mess you up. So we stayed out of our heads, and just kept picking each other up and cheering each other on, and I think that helped a lot.”

In the top of the 11th, Oregon (13-6, 6-3 BNC) finally managed to scratch out a run. Liz Mois blooped a fly ball to short right field, and it dropped in for a double. Jarrett struck out the next hitter, then got a groundout to first for the second out; Mois moved to third on that play.

Dannhorn then hit a grounder to second, but the ball was bobbled and the speedy Oregon freshman beat out the throw as Mois crossed home plate with the go-ahead run.

“The defense was really good, and it’s just the funny nature of softball that it was such a good defensive game up to that point, then one kind of got away from them on a tough in-between hop and we were able to break the tie and get the win,” Rogers said.