McCook Bison softball team wins three games at Lincoln Southeast tourney

LINCOLN -- The McCook Bison softball team notched three wins this weekend at the Lincoln Southeast Classic.

With the threat of rain in Lincoln on Saturday, the time limit for the games was moved to 1 hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal 1 hour and 30 minutes and McCook's first two games ended after 6 innings because of that rule.

It didn't seem to hurt the Bison as they swept through the tournament with three wins to claim the championship of their pool.

The first game saw the Bison get a 3-2 come from behind win over Lincoln Northeast.

Jessica Einspahr led off the 1st inning with a walk and stole second base. She then advanced to third on a sacrifice by Cody Korus.

Einspahr scored on a ground ball by Michelle McKenna when the first baseman for Northeast could not handle the throw.

Northeast came back in the bottom of the 1st and scored on a two run home run by Dart of Lincoln.

"Taryn did a nice job of keeping her composure after that hit and pitched shut out ball for 4 innings and gave us the chance to come back" said McCook softball coach Dale Lortz.

It remained that score until the 5th inning when Cody Korus single and Austin Wilson followed with an RBI single to score Korus to tie the score.

In the 6th, Kirstie Hiatt had a lead off double and Marissa Wallace reached base on an error as Hiatt advanced to third.

Ashley Carfield then single in the go-ahead run which proved to be all the Bison would need for their 3-2 victory.

Hiatt came in to relieve Placzek with 2 out in the 5th inning, striking out 2 of the 5 batters she faced to pick up the win. Placzek gave up 6 hits while striking out 3 and Hiatt did not give up a hit.

"This was a good opening round game for us because it seemed to boost our confidence a little bit. Our pitchers did a nice job and defensively and offensively we had a nice game this morning," Lortz said.

The second game of the day saw the Bison take on the number 5 rated Omaha Burke team and come away with another 3-2 win. Marissa Wallace went the distance allowing 2 runs on 7 hits.

The Bison scored first in the 3rd inning when Jessica Einspahr singled to lead off the inning and stole her second base on the day.

Austin Wilson then singled by beating out the throw from the third baseman as she looked to long to make sure that Einspahr would not advance to third.

With runners then on 1st and 2nd, Michelle McKenna then doubled over the head of the left fielder and Einspahr and Wilson both scored. Kirstie Hiatt double past the right fielder and Sarah Craw, running for McKenna scored.

That ended the scoring for the Bison but it proved to be enough as Wallace and her teammates allowed Omaha to score just 2 runs before time ran out in the game.

The first of those came in the 4th inning with a lead off double and a single to follow that drove in the run. The defense held up and the Bison got out of that inning with no further damage.

Burke scored again in the 6th inning after a lead off walk. She advanced to second on a ground ball out to McKenna at third.

The next batter struck out for the second out of the inning, but then a single scored their second run of the game. The final out came on a ground ball to Hiatt at first, who stepped on the base to end the game with a Bison victory.

"This was a big win for us today, not only because Burke is an excellent team, but because it gives us some creditability in the eastern part of the state," Lortz said. "I was very proud of the way our team competed."

In the third and final game of the day for the Bison saw McCook record their 3rd win 3-0.

The Bison missed on a chance to score in the 3rd inning when Ashley Carfield singled and move to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kali Lyons. Hailee Koetter, batting for Jessica Einspahr, then singled to left and went to second on the throw to the plate to keep Carfield at third. They were then left stranded at second and third.

The Bison did score in the 5th inning as Kali Lyons led off with a bunt single and was moved to second by an Einspahr sacrifice bunt.

Lyons went to third when a ball was pitched in the dirt bounced away from the catcher, who threw it wildly to third and Lyons beat the throw home from the left fielder.

In the 6th inning the Bison added 2 insurance runs. Michelle McKenna singled to get things started and another sacrifice bunt, this time by Kirstie Hiatt, moved Sarah Craw, who was running for McKenna, to second base.

Marissa Wallace doubled to right-center field for her third hit of the game to drive in Craw. Danae McCorkle picked up her second hit of the game with a single past the third baseman. Wallace scored on a ground ball out to second by Carfield.

Kirstie Hiatt picked up her second win of the day, gaving up 0 runs, on 5 hits and pitched in to the 7th inning when Taryn Placzek came in to relieve her after a base hit started the inning.

Placzek gave up another single to the next batter and the third batter reached base on an error to put runners on all bases with no one out.

The Bison then turn in a double play when a ground ball was hit back to Placzek, who threw home for the force out to McKenna, who then threw to Einspahr at first to complete the twin-killing.

The next batter then flew out to Austin Wilson in center field to end the game.

"This was just a nice weekend of us. You always feel good to leave this tournament if you just play well, but picking up the wins was a nice bonus for us," Lortz said.

"We executed pretty well and the kids did a nice job of competing. The good thing is that we are getting better as the season goes on and that is what we need to strive to do through out the remainder of the year."