Article and Photos by T Ray Henry
The Marshall Lions softball squad took their IHSA Class 2A Number 1 seed into the semifinal round of the Effingham St. Anthony regional tournament against the host school St. Anthony on Wednesday, May 20th at Bulldog Field. Marshall finished their season with a record of 23-3, the most regular season wins in school history. St. Anthony came into the semifinal round off a 6-1 win over Pana.
Pitching for Marshall was junior Kyla Gustafson against St. Anthony senior Nancy Ruholl, who pitched a complete-game victory the previous day against Pana. Gustafson finished the game against the Bulldogs working 7 innings, giving up 3 runs (2 earned), 5 hits and no walks. She struck out 15 St. Anthony batters to pick up the win.
In the first four innings of play, neither team threatened to score as Marshall had a total of two hits (a single by Lynn Welborn in the first and a single by Avery Cornwell in the fourth). Meanwhile, St., Anthony managed just one hit against Kyla Gustafson in the first four innings as Gus recorded 9 of the 12 outs via strikeout.
In the top of the fifth, St. Anthony got a double with two runners on base to score two runs and take a 2-0 lead to the bottom half of the fifth. With one out in the inning, Lilly Nickles hit a single to the left side before a fielder’s choice by Lynn Welborn and a hard, line drive single by Lauren English to center field put Lions on at first and second with two outs. Into the batter’s box stepped McKenzie Davis. On a 2 balls, no strikes count, Davis launched a pitch high and deep over the fence in right field for a go-ahead, three-run homer that put the Lions ahead 3-2 as the Big Red faithful erupted on the first base side of the diamond.
With Marshall clinging to a 3-2 lead, St. Anthony responded by scoring the tying run in the top of the sixth to make the score 3-3 before Kyla Gustafson got out of a jam with a runner on third base by striking out the next batter before getting the final out of the inning on a fly ball to left fielder Lilly Nickles.
After the Lions put a couple runners on in the bottom of the sixth, St. Anthony got out of the jam, so the game went to the seventh inning all tied up at 3. In the top of the stanza, Kyla Gustafson struck out the side in succession before the Lions came up in the bottom half of the seventh needing one run to walk it off with the win.
Lynn Welborn led off the bottom half of the seventh by ripping a single to left field. Lauren English then stepped in and dropped down a perfect bunt before she raced towards first base as Welborn sprinted towards second. The St. Anthony defense rushed the play due to the speed of English, and as she crossed first base, the ball sailed high down the right field line as Welborn raced around third base and brought home the winning run without a throw to the plate. With the walk-off win by the score of 4-3, Marshall advances to the regional championship game against Paris, who earlier in the day defeated Effingham to advance to the final.
Lynn Welborn (2 singles, 2 runs scored) and Avery Cornwell (2 singles) each had two hits to lead the Lions at the plate. Lauren English (single), McKenzie Davis (3-R HR, run scored, 3 RBI), Klaire York (single), and Lilly Nickles (single) accounted for the other Marshall hits during the game.
After the game, Marshall head coach Ryan McGuire said, “Another close one. Going back two years, this is the fourth straight regional game that we’ve won by one run. Kyla kept St. Anthony from playing small ball and bunting like they like to. Fifteen strikeouts against a good hitting team is outstanding. The stat that sticks out to me is she didn’t walk a batter along the way.
“We gave up a couple runs in the fifth, but we responded big time in the bottom of the fifth when McKenzie (Davis) smashed that bomb with two outs to put us ahead. I liked how we didn’t get rattled when they tied it back up, because in the bottom of the seventh, it was just a matter of time before we would scratch across the winning run, and after Lynn (Welborn) ripped that single, Lauren English did a great job of getting the bunt down and putting a lot of pressure on them. When the throw went high, Lynn was not going to stop running until she scored.
“We now put all our attention on Paris because they stand in our way of a major goal. I know we will battle them for seven innings, and we will see how it goes.”
Marshall (24-3) plays their next game (weather permitting) this Friday afternoon at 4:00 PM for the regional championship against Paris at Bulldog Field in Effingham. Make plans to come out and see this special team.