Harrisburg tops O'Gorman in South Dakota state softball quarterfinals
· Yahoo Sports
Reese Moody and No. 2 Harrisburg worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the seventh inning to beat No. 7 O'Gorman in the Class AA state quarterfinals.
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Harrisburg will play either No. 3 Sioux Falls Washington or No. 6 Rapid City Stevens in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday, June 5.
Atley Herold-Stephens ripped an RBI double off Moody in the seventh to make it a 6-5 game. Kinsley Sheridan singled and Lucy Kappel drew a walk to load the bases.
Harrisburgs freshman pitcher then struck out Laila Noonan and got Averie Howe to pop out. Sheridan was caught between second and third on the catch for the final out of the game.
"I was just trusting my defense," Moody said. "I know my pitches and I know it's going to work out. I just have to trust myself, and I knew we'd be fine."
Harrisburg head coach Keith Flemmer put Moody into get the game's final eight outs. She only surrendered the one run as the Tigers held on.
"You can tell she's not rattled about the game at all," Flemmer said. "She's just calm, cool and collected."
Harrisburg posted five runs in the bottom of the first. Leia Knutson singled to start the inning, then Kennedy Kokenge doubled. Stella Disbrow singled home Knutson, Peyton LaFramboise doubled in Kokenge and Disbrow, Alexis Fey singled Jayci Olson home and Elyse Gross hit a double that plated Fey.
"I felt like we were all seeing the ball well," Knutson said. "Getting a leadoff runner on base helps our team in the long run. That first inning really helped us through the end of that game."
The Tigers had a runner thrown out at home and another caught stealing in the first, limiting the damage done. Flemmer feels it was those decisions that caused the offense to lose its rhythm moving forward.
"I'll take 100% responsibility of that," Flemmer said. "Softball is a game of momentum. That's just how it goes sometimes."
O'Gorman scored once in the top of the first and three more in the fourth. Kappel, Zoey McEneaney and Maddie Jones drove those runs in.
Harrisburg tacked on one final, important insurance run in the bottom of the fifth, with Anna Simunek singling home Gross.
When Harrisburg's usually-potent offense was stifled by O'Gorman pitcher London Backes, Knutson had to keep her pitchers calm and composed.
"The times I called timeout I just said, 'Play your game,'" Knutson said. "They were throwing pretty well, they were just finding barrels."
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Harrisburg beats O'Gorman in SDHSAA softball state quarterfinal