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Paxton unloads on Hoboes, then fends them off (PHOTO GALLERY)
PAXTON — Following a 13-run first inning that witnessed the Paxton softball team send 16 batters to the plate, it seemed only a matter of time before the Bobcats would close out a win over District 1-A rival Laurel Hill.
Instead, Paxton was pushed to the brink.
Laurel Hill erased deficits of 14-2 and 16-4 before Paxton held on for a 17-12 win over the Hoboes to remain unbeaten (6-1, 5-0) in district play.
Click to view a photo gallery from the game »
“We got (the win) by the skin of our teeth,” Bobcats senior third baseman Emily Smith said.
Smith, who went 2-for-4 with a two-run single in the first that knotted the game at 2-all, was just one cog in a Bobcats’ lineup that produced 22 hits. Krysten Geiselman went 4-for-5 with two doubles and a pair of singles and Kappi Stewart — who scored the go-ahead run in the first — finished 2-for-3 with a pair of singles.
“We won because of the sheer will of our girls to want to beat Laurel Hill,” Paxton coach Laurie Gilbert said. “We had some leadership (in the dugout) that stayed on our younger girls and kept pushing them.”
After Paxton built a 14-2 lead after two innings and 16-4 after three, Laurel Hill scratched across two runs in the fourth when Brittany Baggett and Elizabeth Delduca plated runs with two-out RBI singles.
Laurel Hill (2-4, 1-3) then drew closer in the fifth on a two-out, two-run double by Kasey Harrison that scored Ashley Hatfield and Lauren Gordon, who each reached base after coaxing walks.
Paxton pushed across a run of its own in the fifth when Shelby Oglesby’s RBI double scored Stewart to make it a 17-8 game.
But Laurel Hill answered in the sixth by loading the bases against Paxton reliever Stewart. Following a fielder’s choice that scored Delduca, Stewart induced a pair of ground ball outs before yielding a double off the bat of Harrison that made it a 17-11 score. Harrison would later score on an errant pick-off attempt.
Baggett finished 4-for-4 with two runs batted in, two doubles, a pair of singles and a walk.
“I’m real proud of my girls,” Laurel Hill coach Scott Varnum said. “They weathered the storm and didn’t give up.”
