Chaffee softball team rallies past Van-Far, advances to program's first final four

Editor's note: Carlie Milz' name has been corrected in this story.

VANDALIA, Mo. -- It's been a year of firsts for the Chaffee softball team.

In the Red Devils' first state quarterfinal game in school history, freshman Madeline Hendrix checked another one off the list with one swing of the bat.

Down to her final strike with one out in the seventh inning of a tie game, Hendrix crushed a line-drive triple off the wall in left-center field to score two runs and send Chaffee to its first Class 1 final four with a 10-7 victory over Van-Far on Saturday.

Chaffee's Bailey Wiseman makes conact with a pitch in the second inning of a Class 1 sectional Saturday in Vandalia, Missouri. (Ben Striker)

"I'm just so ecstatic. As soon as I saw it go to the wall, I was thinking three and just hoping those runs would score," Hendrix said of her first triple this season. "It's the best feeling in the world. It gives you chills."

The freshman finished 2 for 4 with four RBIs, and Chaffee combined for 12 hits in the win.

"It's mind blowing still that on August 4 when we came in with this team, dreading conditioning but ready to work, that we'd still be here," Chaffee senior Julia Sutterfield said.

It was just as surprising for senior Hannah Seyer, who closed out the game with a strikeout and has endured three straight losing seasons prior to the Red Devils' 2015 campaign.

"If you would've seen Chaffee softball four years ago, no one ever would've thought this would happen," Hannah Seyer said.

Chaffee (14-4) will play DeKalb (21-7) in a semifinal at 11 a.m. Friday at the Killian Softball Complex Friday in Springfield, Missouri. The winner of that game advances to the championship at noon Saturday.

The Red Devils took an early 4-0 lead on five two-out hits in the first and never trailed against Van-Far (16-13).

Chaffee senior Julia Sutterfield celebrates after scoring a run in the second inning of a Class 1 quarterfinal against Van-Far on Saturday in Vandalia, Missouri. (Ben Striker)

Sutterfield, Sydney Walker and Carleigh Burnett each had consecutive singles during that span before Hendrix drove in a pair with a double. Hendrix scored one batter later on Carlie Milz' single to cap the inning.

The Indians got one run back on a hit and consecutive passed balls in the bottom half, but the Red Devils padded their lead with two more runs in the second.

Bridgette Swinford reached on a fielder's choice with one out, and two batters later, Sutterfield was on again with a double. Walker followed with a two-out double to score both runners and extend the lead to 6-1.

"We were feeling confident, but we knew Van-Far was going to be able to hit the ball," Chaffee coach AJ Horn said.

Van-Far managed one more run on three hits in the second before Burnett began to get comfortable in the circle.

The senior retired nine of the next 11 batters she faced and didn't run into trouble until the Indians started a two-out rally of their own.

Chaffee's Madeline Hendrix, left, and Hannah Seyer celebrate after winning a Class 1 quarterfinal Saturday in Vandalia, Missouri. (Ben Striker)

In the top of the sixth, Burnett walked the first two batters of the inning before recording an out. Carleigh Phillips singled in a run one batter later, and after the second out was recorded, another walk loaded the bases.

Alexis Detienne singled and Jordan Gardner hit back-to-back singles for the Indians to cut the lead to 7-6 before an error one batter later tied the game.

"When you walk people, you're putting them in prime scoring position," Horn said. "We tried to calm down the situation, let them regather their composure. It took them a minute to do that, but our pitchers eventually made their pitches."

Burnett was replaced following the error by Seyer, who got a strikeout to end the inning. The Indians left runners at second and third, and didn't have another base runner for the remainder of the game.

"One more hit might have kept us alive because I had Madison Orr, our best hitter, coming back up," Van-Far coach Kelly Orf said. "We missed a big opportunity."

Despite the lost lead, Chaffee found a way to fight back. Walker and Burnett reached with one-out hits to start the rally before Hendrix's big blast gave the Red Devils the lead for good. A slow roller to second off the bat of Milz allowed Hendrix to score the final run of the game.

"We've been on the other end of these types of games where we've had a big lead and lost it," Horn said. "I think that helped us in the long run because we knew how to come back, we knew how to hit. Our kids, they never stop battling."