BLOOMINGTON — Columbus North softball coach Ron McDonald has said that his team always finds a different way to win.
Tuesday night was no exception.
With the bases loaded and the score tied in the bottom of the seventh, Lucy Norman drew a bases-loaded walk to lift the Bull Dogs to a 6-5 victory over East Central in the opening round of the Bloomington South Sectional.
“Our girls, what can you say? Every way possible, we’ve come back to win when it looked like we were not going to do anything,” McDonald said. “We don’t give up. We tried to squeeze bunt at the end, but we couldn’t get it down. Lucy took some great pitches in there and walked.”
North (13-8) moves on to play Bloomington South (9-15), which upset Shelbyville in Tuesday’s opner, in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday. Columbus East (7-13) will play Bloomington North (7-10) in the second semifinal.
In the seventh, Sierra Norman smacked a triple down the right-field line. Meghan Waggoner then walked, and a strikeout gave the Bull Dogs their first out of the inning. Peri Foust then was intentionally walked to load the bases to force a possible double play for the Trojans (20-4). East Central came up with another strikeout for the second out, but then walked Lucy Norman’s to end the game.
Foust earned the win in the circle. She pitched a complete game, allowing five runs on six hits and striking out nine.
Sierra Norman went 3 for 4 to record a third of North’s nine hits. Rachel Cowan had two RBIs for the Bull Dogs, who avenged an early-season loss to the Trojans.
“Sierra was clutch for us hitting that triple right off the bat, and the was the key to the whole thing,” McDonald said. “Peri pitched a great game, and the last two runs (East Central) got were off of errors. She had a great game. My freshmen played well, and my power-hitters came through. We didn’t get any home runs tonight, but we didn’t need to. We look forward to playing Bloomington South.”
