Mistakes plague Polk softball in loss to Madison

A couple of early Polk County mistakes gave Madison all the runs it would need to win Wednesday’s Western Highlands Conference softball showdown.

But the Wolverines very nearly made it a most interesting finish.

Madison emerged with a 8-2 win Wednesday, giving the Patriots a two-game edge on Polk in the WHC standings and ending the Wolverines’ seven-game winning streak. Madison built a 6-0 lead after four innings and held on to back the 10-strikeout effort of winning pitcher Michaela Drewnoski.

But the game nearly turned in the bottom of the fifth. Ashley Scruggs and Brandi Cordell opened the inning with singles and stood on second and third with two outs as Hayley Kropp settled into the batter’s box. Kropp saw a pitch she liked and drove it to deep center. Madison outfielder Hannah Anders went back to the fence, reached up and snared the ball, denying Kropp a home run that might have changed the game.

“I’m really proud of the girls for coming back,” said Polk County head coach Jeff Wilson. “We hit the ball out to the fence and they catch it, then we got a couple of runs in the next inning. We put ourselves back in position. We just tried.”

The Wolverines (10-3, 4-2) finally put runs on the board in the sixth. Brittany Jones and Ashley Kropp opened the inning with singles, and Alexis McCraw’s one-out single loaded the bases. Scruggs then smashed a grounder that drove in Jones, and Kropp scored on a wild pitch to make it a 6-2 game. Madison added a run in the seventh for the final margin.

The Patriots (11-3, 6-0) loaded the bases and scored a run in the first as Mallory Swaney poked a hit off the end of her bat just out of Cordell’s reach at first. Madison then had a runner on with two outs in the third when an error on Swaney’s fly ball to left brought in one run and prolonged the inning. Hailey Lunsford made that mistake costly by lofting a fly ball into the wind and over the left-field fence, the two-run homer giving Madison a 4-0 lead.

The Patriots then got an RBI single in the fourth from Anders, who subsequently scored after she stole second and the attempt to throw her out there sailed high and rolled to the outfield fence.

“They just outhit us and outplayed us,” Wilson said. “We made some mistakes we don’t normally make. We’re disappointed with not playing well, but give them credit. They were ready.”

Anders and Swaney each had three hits and Drewnoski, Lunsford and Sam Gosnell each had two hits for Madison, which had 14 hits in the game. Scruggs had an RBI and was one of six players with a hit for Polk County.

The Wolverines travel Friday to Mountain Heritage for a WHC matchup, their final game before spring break.