Vikes earn 3rd straight sectional title
May 22—ELNORA — The Barr-Reeve Vikings softball team earned a third straight trip to regional next Tuesday after a 5-1 win over North Daviess in the sectional finals at Cougar Valley Wednesday night.
B-R had less trouble than on Tuesday, when they needed a comeback, walk-off win against Loogootee just to get into the finals against host ND. However, Wednesday would be a different story, as B-R relied on a 12 strikeout, 2-hit night from hurler Karlye Graber, and were able to get timely hitting which gave them just enough offensive to secure the win.
"Yesterday wasn't necessarily how we wanted to come out and play, but obviously the girls did what they needed to do to battle back. Today is definitely a complete different day. We came up, got out on top of early and had to play a little bit of small ball to put on some pressure. Karlye did did a great job tonight," said B-R coach Josh Huff.
"If my girls learned something Tuesday night, it's never quit. The game's never over until it's over and I think that was a good test for this team. Honestly, we haven't been challenged that much, so really that was a test we had last night with Loogootee that helped us keep pushing and pushing and it helped us tonight. It also helped us having 'Karlye be Karlye' tonight and the underclassmen definitely stepped up did their job."
ND veteran coach Jodi Berry returned to the dugout this season after five years away from softball. She was glad to be coaching again in spite of the loss.
"When we had to go in there and we had to have good pitch selection and we didn't, we didn't make adjustments as quickly as we wanted, but that one game doesn't define us. Beth (Smith) did a really good job (coaching) for the five years that I stepped down. I appreciated her staying with it. We just needed more of the little things. Kudos to Alivia Dhahir for getting the RBI and Casey Freed had a nice hit. We just we have to have more than one run. You can win a game with only one run if you're perfect on defense, and we weren't there today," said Berry.
Graber worked quickly in the first two innings striking out three of the first six. B-R did have an early an early double from Graber, but she was nearly robbed by Danika Laramore in center on what was almost a diving catch.
After a Syd Wilson walk, back-to-back doubles from Lucy Wirtz and Hallie Knepp made it 2-0. A single from Kennedy Huff then made it 3-0 and scored Knepp. Tori Smith then came in to pitch for the Cougars, replacing starter Lily Graber.
In the next inning, with two outs, the Cougars got a run back in the top of the third as Kasey Freed got on board and scored on a Alivia Dhahir hit for ND.
Both Smith and Graber allowed one runner each but the score remained 3-1 after four innings. Graber added three more strikeouts in the top of the fifth giving her 10 for the game to that point.
B-R added two more runs as three errors set the table scoring Graber and Addi Jones and making it 5-1 which would be the final runs of the night.
The Cougars season came down to their final three outs, but the Vikes picked up a 1-2-3 inning and guaranteed the trip to regional and will now travel to Tecumseh on Tuesday.
