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Scott City enacts revenge on St. Pius X with walkoff win
SCOTT CITY -- Looking to avenge a 12-4 season-ending loss to St. Pius X in last year's Class 2, District 2 tournament, the Scott City Lady Rams spent most of their offseason counting down the days until Wednesday's season-opening rematch with the Lady Lancers.
With the moment finally at hand, the Lady Rams didn't disappoint, winning 2-1 on junior Alexis Spriggs' walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh.
"The girls have been talking about it all summer long," said Scott City coach Amy Pobst of the rematch. "That has been their goal from the time (the game) ended last year to the day I told them we were playing them the first game this year, which was halfway through summer.
"The moment I came in during the offseason and told them the news, the fire was under them already."
Locked up at 1-1 after 6 1/2 innings of play, the Lady Rams opened up the bottom of the seventh with a quick ground out before freshman Lyndsie Robert worked her way on base hitting a ground ball to short that was mishandled.
After stealing second, Robert got the chance to break for home when Spriggs sent a shot up the first base line that was knocked down and kept in the infield by diving second baseman Catherine Chamberlain.
With Robert rounding third, St. Pius X first baseman Kelley Conway collected the ball and fired home, but not in time to beat Robert's slide in to the plate.
"(The second baseman) was having a little bit of trouble with the ball and I figured they would try to make the play at first so I thought, why not send her," said Pobst of Robert. "It was going to take a perfect pickup and perfect throw to get her so I thought I'd try it and see what happens."
Said Spriggs of the play, "I told (Robert) before she went up to bat if she got on I'd get her in or I'd at least try my best."
With the run, Scott City was able to close out what was a well earned win by starting pitcher Becky Burger. In a full seven innings, Burger allowed one run on five hits and a walk while striking two.
Her only blemish of the night came in the third frame when Chamberlain reached on an error before coming home on a sacrifice fly to centerfield as the Lady Lancers took an early 1-0 lead.
"Being a sophomore pitcher and coming from last year as a freshman, she's matured a lot," Pobst said of Burger. "She's learned to have confidence in herself and confidence in her defense.
"She does a good job of making them put the ball in play and letting our defense make the plays."
Burger admitted to being nervous before the game, but said, "after the first pitch it was just kind of the same old, same old, just going through the motions.
"The defense really backed me up and made me feel good about it. As a pitcher it's always good to know your defense is there for you."
Burger's counterpart, Holly Magre, was nearly as effective in her outing, allowing seven hits and a walk while striking out seven in a complete game effort.
"She's been our workhorse," Lady Lancer coach Kevin Halley said. "She's a great kid, a great leader and that's what you need out of a pitcher.
"She stay composed and did her job today. As a team we just didn't do the job behind her or at the plate that we needed to."
Leading the Lady Rams on offense, Spriggs and Lindsay Kern both collected a pair of singles on the contest.
On top of her game-winning hit, Spriggs brought home Scott City's only other run in the bottom of the third when she grounded out up the first base side to bring home Lyndsey Rendleman, which tied the game at 1-1.
Next up, Scott City (1-0) will host the Chaffee Lady Devils (0-2) today at 4:30 p.m.