SOFTBALL: Logan tops No. 2 Harrison to win first sectional title since 1998

May 24—KOKOMO — Logansport faced one of the best teams in the state and a huge sectional nemesis over the years in Harrison in the championship game on Thursday night.

The Raiders are ranked No. 2 in the state in the MaxPreps ratings and have been the class of the Lafayette area in recent years.

But it was the Berries that finally broke through against them in their final season in Class 4A in the foreseeable future.

The Berries defeated the Raiders 1-0 on Jocelynn Vincent's walkoff triple that scored Natalee Packard from first base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning in the championship game of the Class 4A Kokomo Sectional.

Vincent lifted a Rylan Gick offering down the right field line and once it got past the right fielder it got all the way to the fence as Packard jetted around the bases to scoring the winning run.

"I just went in the box having confidence in myself," Vincent said. "I knew the game was close, I knew that we had two outs, we had a runner on first base, so I needed my ball to go to right field just to advance my runner and hopefully get her to score. That's exactly what I did. They just had one error and that's what cost them the game."

It wasn't technically an error on the Raiders (19-5) but it was a mental error as had the Harrison right fielder played the ball on a hop, it likely would have put runners on the corners with two outs. But instead she went for a diving catch and after that it was a footrace for Packard to reach home which she easily won.

For Logansport coach Cory Cripe, it was poetic justice considering what happened in last year's sectional semifinal that Harrison won 3-2. It was one of many heartbreakers the Berries (25-5) have had against the Raiders since class sports were enacted.

"We've battled and battled and battled with Harrison. (Assistant coach) Matt (Henderson) and I were talking about it afterwards and I said if you remember right last year the girl dove down the left field line on a ball Pailei (Cripe) hit and robbed us of a hit and probably robbed us of a win," coach Cripe said. "That ball went up and I was like, 'oh no, not again.' And it just bounced past her and Natalee put her foot in the ground and was running. Good for us, it feels great. There's good teams in this sectional and we battle with them. Gosh darn, what a fun group of kids to be around."

Last year it was Kinzie Byrd who gave the Berries a chance against the Raiders. She pitched at Anderson University this past season.

On Thursday it was a freshman, Brooklynn Hagerty, who went pitch for pitch against Gick and won the battle.

Hagerty pitched a five-hit shutout with no walks and three strikeouts against one of the best lineups in the state.

"It was an all-out team win," Hagerty said. "I was so proud of all these girls. They had my back the whole time. They were getting up and even when someone would get down or someone would make a mistake they were always there pumping each other up. It was a great team win.

"It was a blast. All these girls had my back. Fielding, hitting, everything, they were there for me."

The Berry defense was often challenged but they were flawless with no errors. And when she needed to, Hagerty was able to deliver an out pitch.

"Working the best was probably drop helping me out and it helped us get the ground outs and the girls helped fielding it," she said. "Harrison's a very, very good team. We lost to them earlier in the season 4-2 and we came back and we were ready. We were ready for them. That's what we wanted."

The Raiders threatened in the fourth when Chelsea Parker singled and Ashley Dunk hit a double to put runners on second and third with two outs. But Hagerty got Jadyn Ramer to ground out to third to end the inning.

Whitney Duell led off the sixth with a single to left but tried to stretch it into a double and Teagan Wolf pegged her out with a throw to Kellyn Cripe. Parker later doubled to right center with two outs. But Hagerty got Ava Mobley to line out softly to first for the final out.

Hagerty worked a 1-2-3 seventh with three straight groundouts to set up a win in the last at-bat situation.

The Berry defense was busy all night but they were up to the task.

"We moved Jocelynn to third base and that allowed us to move Natalee to first, who's our best first baseman. And our defense showed out again today," coach Cripe said. "We spend every practice 20 minutes hitting fly balls and ground balls. These kids have seen 5,000 fly balls and 5,000 ground balls and it showed up today. You watch Teagan Wolf run here and catch a ball, almost has to go into the dugout to catch it, what a great job. We had great play in the outfield today. Aracyn Good was awesome at shortstop, Jocelynn made a few good plays, Kellyn makes a few plays on some hard hit balls. Everybody contributed today and that was why we won."

Hagerty was recently rated as a top 50 pitcher in the nation in the Class of 2027 by Extra Inning Softball.

"Brooklynn has gotten stronger as the season's gone on," coach Cripe said. "The thing is I try to tell her you're not going to throw every game because I need you strong at the end of the year. And man, she's just a horse. We just rode her this sectionals and what a great job."

The Raiders entered averaging 7.7 runs per game against a big-school schedule.

"That team goes to state, if they win this game, they'll go to state," coach Cripe said.

Gick, who's headed to NCAA Division II Purdue Northwest, allowed one run on three hits, one walk and one hit batter, striking out 10. She struck out 174 batters in 109 innings for the season.

Kellyn Cripe had a single to left in the first inning for the Berries. Rylinn Spradling had a single to center in the third. Vincent was hit by a pitch in the second. Those were the only three base runners until the seventh, when Packard drew a one-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and Vincent followed with her game-winning hit.

It was the Berries' first sectional championship in softball since 1998 and seventh all-time. 1998 was the first year of class softball, which was a three-class sport back then. Ron Kinnaman's Berries won the Columbia City Sectional on what the Pharos-Tribune described as a "bone-chilling cold" day in early in early June. The Berries started that season 5-9 before winning 12 of their last 17 and beating Homestead, Kokomo and Huntington North to win the school's first-ever class sports sectional crown. Steph Coon did the bulk of the pitching in that year's sectional and some of the offensive leaders were Heather Bacon, Amy Bacon, Tera Franklin, Courtney Franklin, Amanda Rottet and Crystal Nipper.

This year's sectional hero, Vincent, transferred in from Pioneer this school year. She will be featured more in Tuesday's Pharos-Tribune. She is the lone senior on this year's team, so expect more good things from this group ahead.

Logan will travel to either Hamilton Southeastern or Noblesville for a one-game regional on Tuesday, depending on who wins Saturday afternoon's sectional final at Carmel. The Berries are seeking their first-ever regional title in softball.