Article and Photos by T Ray
The Marshall Lions softball squad took their 10-1 record to Robinson City Park to take on the Robinson High School Lady Maroons in the conference opener for both teams. These two teams played on the same field two weeks ago in a non-conference game won by Marshall by the score of 2-0, but with today’s tilt being a conference game, the stakes were much higher since LIC schools play only seven conference games between now and the second week of May.
In a back-and-forth affair, where both teams had chances to win the game in regulation, the game took on a life of its own as it went to an extra inning all tied up at 5. In the top of the eighth inning, Marshall pushed the go-ahead run across the plate to take a 6-5 lead to the bottom half of the inning. In the bottom of the eighth, Robinson went down in order, with the final two batters going down via strikeout, and Marshall came away with a hard-fought 6-5 win over Robinson to begin the conference slate 1-0.
Pitching for the Lions was junior Kyla Gustafson, who was pitted against Lady Maroons ace Eva Hermann. The two pitchers engaged in a pitcher’s duel the first time these teams met earlier in the season, so it was a little surprising that more runs were scored in the first inning of this game than were scored during the entire game two weeks before. In the top of the first, Marshall’s Lynn Welborn smacked a single to left field before Lauren English sacrifice bunted Welborn into scoring position at second base. Another ground ball advanced Welborn to third, then she came in to score on a passed ball for an early 1-0 Marshall lead. In the bottom half of the first, Robinson scored twice to take a 2-1 lead.
In the top of the fourth inning, Marshall tied it up at 2 apiece after McKenzie Davis launched a double to left field before advancing to third on a wild pitch. With Avery Cornwell at the plate with one out and Davis 60 feet away at third base, Cornwell dropped down a bunt as Davis raced home and beat the tag to score. After Kyla Gustasfson struck out the side in the bottom of the fourth, Marshall came back up to bat in the top of the first with the score still tied at 2. The Lions wasted little time before taking a 3-2 lead when Lynn Welborn drove a Hermann offering deep over the fence in left center field.
In the top of the sixth, some mysterious Crawford County occurrences began to spring up on the softball diamond. After Klaire York singled on a line drive to left field, Avery Cornwell hit the ball to the left side of the infield, and York was called out at second base. The problem for Robinson and the field umpire was that ball was laying on the dirt in front of second base when York was called out, so the call had to be reversed. With runners on at first and second, Kyla Gustafson then came up to bat and laced a line drive down the line in right field as York and Cornwell both came all the way around the bases to score and Gustafson cruised into third base for a triple – except she wasn’t allowed to stay on third base, and both runners didn’t score the runs because a Lady Maroons fan outside the fence in right field reached through the fence and grabbed the ball. The umpires got together and made the decision that Gustafson was awarded a ground-rule double (even though she made it all the way to third), Cornwell had to go back to third base (taking her run off the board), and York’s score was allowed to stand as Marshall’s fourth run of the game. After an extended conference, the fan was allowed to remain in attendance and play continued.
With the Lions leading 4-2 in the top of the seventh, the Big Red pushed another run across, but this time in a much more conventional manner. Lynn Welborn singled on a line drive to left field before Lauren English drove a single to center field to advance Welborn to third base. After English stole second to put runners at second and third, McKenzie Davis hit a long fly ball to left field. Welborn tagged up from third and easily scored to increase Marshall’s lead at 5-2. In the bottom of the seventh, Robinson got an extra out and took advantage of the benefit by scoring thrice to tie the game at 5. With the Lady Maroons having the winning run in scoring position with two outs, Kyla Gustafson struck out Eva Hermann for the fourth time in the game, earning Hermann the golden sombrero.
With the teams knotted up at 5 apiece going to extra innings, the game conjured up memories of last season’s first game between the two schools which went 13 innings before Marshall prevailed on a single by Ella Mattas to win that game. In this game, Avery Cornwell led off the top of the eighth for Marshall by singling on a drive to left field. Ella Mattas came up next, and after squaring in the batter’s box and dropping down a bunt, both Marshall runners took off running, but hold the phone – for reasons unknown to all those present, Marshall was called out and Cornwell had to return to first base with one out. The next batter coming up to bat was Caitlyn Hilliard, who must have had thoughts about what shenanigans awaited her. Hilliard, who earlier in the game had an outstanding 8 pitch at-bat in her last plate appearance, hit a grounder to the left side. The Robinson throw to force Cornwell at second base sailed out into right field as Cornwell slid into the bag. Cornwell jumped up and raced towards third, and as she neared the bag she was waved home. As she sprinted down the baseline towards home plate, the throw came to plate as Cornwell made a terrific outside slide to score the go-ahead run to make it 6-5 in Marshall’s favor.
With the Lions three outs away from victory, Kyla Gustafson got the first out on a grounder back to the circle, then she got the second and third outs via strikeout. When the windy dust finally settled, Marshall came away with a 6-5 grinder that at times felt more like root canal.
Kyla Gustafson persevered in the circle, especially after she took a liner off the leg early on in the game. Gus gutted out 8 innings to earn the win. She allowed 5 runs on 9 hits, walking one while striking out 17. Gus helped her own cause with a big triple – er – double in the sixth which should have cleared the bases.
Lynn Welborn, who was hot at the plate during the weekend at the Lady Braves Bash, went 3 for 3 with a big bomb. Welborn scored 3 runs, drove in one, and stole 2 bases. Lauren English (SB), McKenzie Davis (double, RBI, run scored), Klaire York, and Avery Cornwell also had base hits versus the Lady Maroons.
After the win, Marshall head coach Ryan McGuire said, “It was a big win. Robinson is a good hitting team, and they are fast on the base paths. We had to overcome some situations, but I am very proud of how the team stayed together, and when the chips didn’t fall our way, they kept grinding it out and pulled out the win. Kyla (Gustafson) pitched very well with little rest after pitching two games in the Terre Haute tournament. Lynn Welborn is seeing and hitting the ball very well, and she hit an absolute blast on her home run against an excellent pitcher.
Our left side (Lauren English at third base, Lynn Welborn at shortstop, and Lilly Nickles in left field) is a very strong unit. Having Lauren at third makes teams not want to try and bunt to the left side of our infield. She has been playing next level defense for us at third base and in center field when Avery (Cornwell) pitches. The conference race will be a marathon this year, and with Paris beating a previously unbeaten Mount Carmel team today, this season may be the most competitive of my five years as a head coach at this level. Today we battled through adversity and prevailed.
Tomorrow we hit the road again, this time over to Kansas to take on Tri-County before we get a practice day to prepare for Paris in our home opener on Thursday. We will need to be fundamentally sound and bring our A game to battle the Titans and the Tigers this week.”
Marshall (11-1) travels to Kansas Tuesday afternoon for a non-conference game against Tri-County. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 PM at the softball field adjacent to the Kansas Treatment and Learning Center located on Center Street in Kansas, IL.
Lynn Welborn is greeted at home plate after her big blast against Robinson
Kyla Gustafson watches her smash that went all the way to the fence in right field against Robinson
Avery Cornwell (17) slides home safely with what turned out to be the winning run of the game against Robinson
