With the lack of runs that the Columbus East softball put on the board the first six innings Thursday night, the Olympians were staring into the face of a second consecutive loss to open the season.
In the seventh inning, however, those runs finally came at the perfect moment.
East put up four runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game and then added another run in the bottom of the eighth for a come-from-behind 6-5 win against Bloomington North.
“This was a good win for us,” East junior Mady Foster said. “We lost to them the past few years. This was big for us, and I was proud that we could come back. Everybody played well, and I was glad we could come back and win.”
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Down 5-1 in the seventh, Kerigan Greathouse got the inning going with a base hit. Foster then singled, and Jordan Johnston drove in Greathouse to make it 5-2. Kaitlin Brummett then hit the ball to right field and the ball deflected off the fielder, allowing Foster and Johnston to score to cut it to 5-4. Brummett advanced to third on the error and scored on a hit by Brooke Valles to tie the game at 5-5.
The Olympians (1-1) also had another opponent to battle besides the Cougars — daylight. Instead of calling the game because of darkness, the umpires chose to play on following the seventh inning.
East took advantage of fading light with Julia Sitterding leading off the eighth with a single. Foster then singled, and a Cougars error on the throw led to Sitterding scoring the game-winning run.
“We knew it was a crucial time for us, and we had to get the job done and put the ball in play,” Johnston said. “This was definitely a big win and a team effort, and we couldn’t do it without each other ,and we pulled through.”
Johnston went 4 for 4 with an RBI got her first win of the season in the circle, pitching all eight innings. Foster went 3 for 4, and Valles and Brummett each went 2 for 4 with a double and two RBIs.
The win is the first against Bloomington North for Rusty Brummett in his fifth season as East coach.
“It was one of those games that if you keep doing what you’re doing, sooner or later, the dam is going to break, and the water is just going to come flowing out, and that’s what happened,” Rusty Brummett said. “We were just doing a lot of things right. If we can play like this for the rest of the season, we’ll be pretty good. You can’t be more proud of a group of people that are down four runs going into the bottom of the seventh inning, and they kept playing and playing and that’s what you want.”
