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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville softball catcher Moe Kastens hit a two-run homer over the fence in right-center field to give the Tigers the lead, then thwarted a Triad rally in the seventh to give Edwardsville a 4-3 win over the Knights in a game played Friday afternoon at the Edwardsville Sports Complex.
The Tigers came back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the fourth before Kastens’ home run in the fifth as Lauren Dial and Ryleigh Owens came on in relief of starter Kay Swanson to give Edwardsville the win.
“It was a good win for us,” said Tigers’ head coach Lori Blade, “especially to get down, to come back and get back in it, tie it up with those two runs. Sam (Sanders) had a good day at the plate, but a good win for us. We still made a couple of mistakes that we’ve got to clean up; that’s what we just talked about. Some baserunning, that we’re running ourselves out of innings, and things like that. But we’re getting there, we are. We’re getting better than what we were three weeks ago, so that’s the positive side of it.”
The three pitchers used on the day for Edwardsville – Swanson, Dial, and Owens – all contributed positive innings for the Tigers.
“I thought Kay threw, we were watching her pitch numbers, but I thought she threw pretty well for the most part,” Blade said, “Got in a couple in that last inning, started hanging a little bit. And then Lauren, the same thing, even though she threw pretty good, just was all over the place a little bit. Then we had seven, eight, nine, so I was comfortable with Ryleigh, and if we make a couple of plays behind her, we’re out of it. Fortunately, we made the plays when we needed to.”
Sanders, who was the Tigers’ designated player, had a good day at the plate, going two-for-three with a game-tying two-out double in the fourth.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, this game is so much about timing,” Blade said. “It scared me that she gets that double, and I press our luck trying to send Mac (Mackenzie Owens), but the next time she’s up with two on, and it’s about timing, so I hated to not see her get one there, but she came through for us again and changed the whole complexion of the game. But she’s been swinging the bat really well, so that’s why she’s getting the opportunity in the varsity lineup. But she really came through for us today with a couple of nice hits.”
And Kastens had the biggest at-bat of the game with her fifth-inning blast that turned out to be the game winner.
“Moe had a huge at-bat,” Blade said. “She battled with two strikes, I think fouled two or three off, and when she got one that she hit pretty hard, and fortunately, it went out.”
It was Kastens’ first homer of the season, and it came at a very opportune time for the Tigers.
“She gets it right, it’s going,” Blade said with a smile. “But that’s the good part. That should help her confidence out a little bit, but that situation, when Jayna (Connoyer) gets on, and Maria puts down a perfect bunt, and we almost run ourselves out of the inning, if Moe doesn’t pick us up. So it’s good to see her teammates pick each other up.”
The Knights, despite their loss, kept battling until the very end.
“Oh, absolutely,” said Triad head coach Kris Kleeman. “It comes down to, they made plays in key situations in the game, and we just didn’t. So, one pitch and one miscue can change the dynamics in the game. We’ve always had classic battles, and it’s a fun time to come over here. Edwardsville’s had a good quality program, and coach Blade does a nice job. We’ve always been very competitive, and it’s nice, sometimes, to go in and get a handed win. But when you battle like this, and it’s back-and-forth, and both teams are really good, it takes your girls and makes them have to compete at a higher level.
“The girls fight to the end,” Kleeman continued, “and we’ve always had that mentality. So, I wish we could have been a little more aggressive in the first part of the game, rather than coming out in the last part of the game being down two. But they fought to the end, and I’m very proud of the way they performed, and we just move on from her and keep doing our thing.”
With the first month of the season drawing to a close, Kleeman felt her team has a lot of ups-and-downs but has still managed to win some games.
“We have peaks and valleys, I think I would say,” Kleeman said. “We do things that are great, and then, we lose our focus. And we kind of miscue some things. Unfortunately, so far, we’ve been able to have those miscues and still win softball games where you lose your focus, and you don’t make the play. But in a high-pressure game, when it’s very close like that, when that happens, you don’t win the ball game.”
With the season getting ready to charge into its second month, Kleeman hopes that her team will rise to the challenges ahead.
“High-pressure, for sure, and high-intensity situations,” Kleeman said. “I’m gonna be honest, we’ve not been challenged too much, you know, here recently. We’ve been fortunate enough to beat teams handily, and we have not experienced the pressure that we experienced today. So this is the first time that we’ve really been tested, and they fought to the end. So that’s good.”
The game will definitely help the Knights down the road.
“Oh, most definitely. Absolutely, yes,” Kleeman said. “You cannot simulate this kind of intensity in practice.”
Triad broke out on top in the second inning, thanks to a couple of Tiger errors. Payton Bode opened with a single up the middle but was forced at second by pitcher Liz Young. Dallas Zirkelbach then grounded back to the box and threw to second, where the throw deflected off the shortstop’s glove into right field. Zirkelbach was then caught in a rundown between first and second, but a moment’s hesitation by the first baseman when Young broke for the plate enabled Zirkelbach to reach second safely and Young to score the first run of the game.
The Tigers had a chance to tie things up in the bottom of the inning when with two out, Mackenzie Owens singled to right and Sanders doubled over the center fielder’s head. Owens tried to score but was thrown out at the plate on a good relay throw by the shortstop to keep it 1-0 Triad.
The Knights doubled their lead in the fourth, when with one out, Bode singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, then to third on a passed ball, and scored on Zirkelbach’s RBI single to left center to make it 2-0 Triad. The Tigers tied it up in the bottom of the inning, starting with a Kastens lead-off single, followed one out later with Swanson reaching on an error by the first baseman. With two out, Sanders delivered with a ringing double to the fence in right-center to score Kastens and courtesy runner Maci McNamee to tie the game at 2-2.
With Dial coming in to pitch in the fifth, Triad tried to get the lead back, but Jenna Bohnenstiehl was caught stealing on a great throw by Kastens to end the inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Connoyer led off by being hit by a pitch. Maria Smith then laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line for a hit, but Connoyer was caught off second, as the catcher made a great throw to the shortstop to get Connoyer. One out later, Kastens connected on a 1-2 pitch and sent it over the fence in right-center to give Edwardsville the lead 4-2.
Dial got out of a first-and-second jam in the sixth by getting Young to ground into a fielder’s choice that forced Izzi Lehan at third, then Zirkelbach lined out to center to end the inning.
In the seventh, Ryleigh Owens gave up a lead-off double to Ella Moore, who scored with one out when Caroline Lehan reached on an error. Owens then got Bohnenstiehl to ground into a fielder’s choice that forced Lehan at second, then hit Kalley Daniel with a pitch. But Owens struck out Izzi Lehan swinging to end the game 4-3 in favor of the Tigers.
Edwardsville is now 7-2 on the year and will face Marquette Catholic at home on Tuesday, then go to Belleville West on Wednesday before hosting Alton in a make-up game from a rainout on Thursday. The games start at 4:30 p.m.
Triad drops to 9-4 and begins a stretch of Mississippi Valley Conference games on Monday against Civic Memorial, then against Jersey on Wednesday, both game on the road starting at 4:15 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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