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Joplin's grit shows through in walk-off victory over McDonald County

Derek Shore, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·4 min read

Aug. 31—Down to their final out. Check. Down to their final strike. Check.

Oh how the tides quickly turned for the pesky Joplin Eagle softball team.

Those same Eagles ended the game in dramatic fashion. Abby Lowery collected a game-tying single and Jill McDaniel provided the walk-off popup that dropped and scored Izzy Yust as Joplin rallied past McDonald County 4-3 on Tuesday afternoon at JHS Athletic Complex.

It wasn't exactly how Eagle coach Brenden Schneider drew it up, but he'll certainly take it in his first home opener leading Joplin's softball squad.

The Eagles (5-1) seventh-inning rally started with a leadoff single from Bailey Ledford. Yust followed with a bunt single to put Joplin in prime position to strike with their middle of the order bats coming up in Jadyn Pankow and Riley Kelly.

But both Pankow and Kelly flew out until Lowery's RBI single to tie it. One batter later, McDaniel lofted a high popup that was dropped by a McDonald County defender and Yust sprinted home to score, bringing the Eagle crowd to a frenzy.

"Right there at the end, we had gritty at-bats. We found ways to get on," Schneider said. "Bailey gets down 0-2 and finds a way to single. Izzy Yust just finding ways. That little base-hit bunt she had. That's a great play by her. She stays calm, she lets it drop. Then all of a sudden, you feel pretty good about it, you know? Even though you have to get two in that situation to win, you got Jadyn and Riley due next up. Lone and behold, Jill McDaniel does it herself.

"Eleven K's and the game-winning popup. We are just happy it went our way. Credit to Mac County because they played a great game. That girl in the circle pitched a great game."

McDonald County drew first blood in the opening inning of the ballgame. Nevaeh Dodson scored on a fielding error and Carlee Cooper touched home on a wild pitch.

Outside of an RBI double from Kelly in the bottom of the first to trim the deficit to one, offense was hard to come by for Joplin. The Eagles had a runner on second with less than two outs and in the third on second and third with less than two, but just could not get that tying run across.

Until the fourth.

Ledford worked a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. She scored on the same play after an errant throw to third by McDonald County.

It was later in the game where Ledford's baserunning proved valuable again. She swiped third before Lowery's game-tying hit.

"Credit to her there at the end, stealing third base to put herself in a position to score," Schneider said. "That's just smart softball. That's a junior doing things a varsity player should do."

Then in the sixth, the Mustangs took the lead for the final time when Amanda Pacheco collected a pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI single.

Other than that, McDaniel proved to be excellent for the Eagles in the circle. The senior righty surrendered three runs (none earned) with 11 strikeouts.

"You got Jill in the circle, just absolutely dominant," Schneider said. "Those are the kind of games we need from her. You hold a team to three runs as good as McDonald County; it puts you into a position to win."

Ledford, Kelly and Lowery racked up two hits each to pace Joplin's offense.

Dodson was superb for McDonald County, which fell to 1-1. The junior righty also struck out 11 batters and allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits.

The Mustangs mustered just four hits.

"We didn't play very well," McDonald County coach Heath Alumbaugh said. "Joplin came out ready to play. They hooked up from the first pitch and played through the last pitch. With parody of teams in this area, if you are not ready to do that, you will get beat every game. Hats off to Joplin for being ready. We just have to get better."

How about that fast start for the Eagles?

"The thing that's been most impressive, even the loss we had and the way we got down early, we just continued to fight," Schneider said. "Against Duncan this past weekend, we played a three-hour game. We went to extras. We were ahead in the last four innings and then lost. We could have slumped our shoulders when we played Branson and just rolled over.

"But our girls absolutely compete every single day. It's what we do at practice. They just want to play the game hard all the time. We are really, really happy with our start because these girls just have a lot of fight in them."

Joplin plays at Cassville on Thursday while McDonald County hosts Marshfield.