Mid-Buchanan squeaks past Chaffee in softball semifinal shootout

SPRINGFIELD — With the season on the line, it took all seven innings to decide a semifinal between Chaffee and Mid-Buchanan, but a big late rally helped push the Dragons past the Red Devils 8-6 and into the Class 2 state title game.

What looked like a duel early on turned into a shootout as Chaffee’s rallies were immediately responded by bigger, louder Dragon rallies in an explosive affair in Springfield.

In a tied seventh inning, the hits piled up for Mid-Buchanan as it battled through a sensational Chaffee effort and into its first championship appearance since 1979.

But for the Red Devils, the loss spells the end of a long, arduous run at a gold medal that finished just a hair short of a second consecutive appearance in the state championship game.

“Give them credit,” Red Devils coach Brian Horrell began, “they just kept hitting the ball. They’re a great team.

“Every time we punched them today, they counterpunched us — it was just a really great ballgame.”

Both Carlyanne Cossou and Bailey Robertson finished their days with two hits, while Paizleigh Graham got perhaps the biggest hit of the game for Chaffee with a sixth-inning homer to end a scoreless drought.

Chaffee had the energy necessary to fight to the very finish, but it came down to late-game execution, and Mid-Buchanan didn’t falter when it mattered the most.

Sophia Smith, Zuzu Kountz and Kaylea Myers each notched two hits in the Mid-Buchanan victory, with Dru Pearson’s one hit going for a game-high four RBIs.

Answering the bell, both teams took fire to the plate, and what appeared to be a battle of great pitching turned into a firefight the Dragons barely squeaked out of.

Though it might get lost in the details, the Red Devils brought every last bit of the game they could’ve before Mid-Buchanan finally iced this one out on a rocket line-drive catch.

It came down to which team could make the most plays, and with a few Chaffee misplays that gave the Dragons a little extra life, there’s no doubt Mid-Buchanan won the battle of execution.

“We hope our offense continues to keep growing,” Horrell said. “Our pitching was great, but our defense faulted a little bit.

“Usually, we’re solid defensively behind a great pitcher in Carlyanne Cossou, an all-stater, but our defense had a few hiccups today that our offense wasn’t able to pick us up all the way.”

Settling into a pitchers’ duel early, neither side got a real breakthrough until the Dragons put two runners in scoring position in the top of the third inning.

Cossou pitched out of it with a groundout to second, keeping it scoreless for the fierce Mid-Buchanan a little longer.

In the bottom half of the third, Cossou got on with a two-out walk and, while stealing second, made it all the way around the third, where she later stood for Reese Van Pelt.

With runners on the corners, Van Pelt blasted a two-run double over the head of the center fielder, opening the scoring as Cossou came in along with Millie Carroll.

But as Chaffee began to wake up, so too did Mid-Buchanan as Pearson hammered a line-drive grand slam to unload the bases and put the Dragons in front.

Chaffee had a few chances to get out of the rally, but one swing took the Red Devils from up a pair to down 4-2 going into the home half of the fourth after a leaping snag from Addison Uhrhan at the wall.

With a near guarantee of Jocelyn Hanlon’s rip into the gap scoring a run, Pearson again flexed her skills as she made a sprinting catch in left-center and fired it back to the infield to turn an inning-ending double play, the latter confirmed after a 10-minute-long review.

In desperate need of an injection of energy, Graham became “Bam” with a solo shot just inside the left-field pole to make it a one-run game in the sixth, and her teammates followed suit.

After drawing a two-out walk, Jersie Lynn came around to score on a double that rose the Chaffee crowd to piercing levels, tying the game at 4-all going into the seventh.

But when the Devils needed a stop, leadoff batter Sophie Smith drilled a triple into the right-field gap to put the go-ahead run just 60 feet away.

With the bases juiced, Zuzu Kountz slammed a line-drive single up the middle to score two, putting Mid-Buchanan back in front 6-4, and starting pitcher Kaylea Myers put another two on the board with an RBI double into right.

Down to its final three outs, Chaffee took one last shot at the comeback, and even put another two runs on the board, largely thanks to a shallow poke from Van Pelt that turned into two bases.

But in the end, it was Mid-Buchanan celebrating a spot in the final game of the Class 2 season as Chaffee looked on from a narrow loss in a fearsome fight of two of the hottest teams in the state.