It was the two batters ahead of the cleanup hitter that gave him fits Thursday.
No. 2 and 3 hitters Alexa Quesenberry and Peyton Raban reached base eight times in 10 plate appearances, combining for five doubles, a home run and six RBI as the Tigers claimed an 11-6 win at Independence Thursday.
The victory evens the season series and keeps Shady in play for home-field advantage in the postseason.
The Tigers hit early and often, compiling 12 hits and making the most of Independence’s errors and mental lapses.
Quesenberry and Raban applied the pressure early and never let off. The former’s one-out double in the first inning was followed by another from the latter, putting the Tigers ahead 1-0 and familiarizing the Patriots with a scene they’d see all night.
“We’ve been telling them for a couple weeks now you’ve got to trust yourself and what you’ve worked for,” Shady head coach Nikki Mays said. “Not worry about the stats. It doesn’t matter what’s beside of you. It matters what we do for each other out here on the field and we’ve been stressing that. They showed it today. They’ve got to get out of their heads and come in with an approach and have confidence.”
The dynamic duo of Quesenberry and Raban struck again in the third inning when the latter drew a walk and Raban delivered a two-run home run to extend the lead to 3-0. Indy all-state catcher Ava Parks had an answer in the bottom of the frame, poking a two-run single to right field to cut into the deficit but the momentum was short-lived.
Batting ninth, Bristol Hamilton doubled to plate two in the fourth inning for Shady, extending the advantage to 5-3, kicking off an Indy spiral.
A leadoff walk drawn by Raban in the fifth led to a run when Joyce reached on an error at first and Raban kept running, slipping her way home before the Patriots noticed.
“The huge inning my senior drops a ball and then we turn around and let one get to the corner and those are with two outs,” Indy head coach Ken Adkins said of the mental errors. “You should be out of the inning. We have this saying, when people give you cake, eat the cake. Don’t say ‘I don’t like cake,’ or ‘I don’t like icing on the cake,’ just shove it in your mouth. When you get a gift take a gift and go on. We didn’t do a very good job of that today. People try to give us cake and we push it across the table.”
Kassidy Braburry’s double in the bottom of the frame answered the run but Hamilton, Quesenberry and Raban were again at the forefront of a scoring charge, each scoring runs in the top of the sixth, pushing the lead to 9-3 on an RBI each from Joyce and Brooklynn Blankenship.
“I think it was just a long time coming honestly,” Raban said. “Me and Alexa have had something to prove this whole season. I want to give credit mostly to Alexa because if it wasn’t for her I don’t think I would’ve done what I done at the plate tonight. I just think it was a big moment for both of us.”
Independence found more offense late but not enough as Emma Lilly blasted a solo home run in the sixth and two runs in the bottom of the seventh were just offsetting for two driven in by Quesenberry in the top of the frame.
“(Shady) did a great job, made great adjustments today,” Adkins said. “They adjusted to the umpire well, we did not. We struck out 11 times today – four or five times looking on the same pitch. A pitch in, she’s throwing it, you know she’s throwing it and we just keep taking it and shaking our head like we don’t understand it. We talk all season long about adjusting. It takes one inning to adjust to that umpire. We just had that guy the other day, you know what I mean? We knew what he was gonna call.”
Raegan Lane earned the win for Shady, allowing just two earned runs and fanning 11. Raban and Quesenberry finished with three hits each, all for extra bases.
Bradbury, Lilly and Parks notched two hits each for Indy in the loss.
