Emalee Heafner hadn’t played a lot in Columbus North’s first five softball games this season, but prior to Tuesday’s contest against unbeaten Seymour, Bull Dogs coach Ron McDonald told her to be ready.
So when McDonald sent Heafner to the plate to pinch hit with North trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Heafner made the most of her opportunity. She sent a pitch over the right-center field fence for a three-run homer, and the Bull Dogs held on for a 4-3 win.
“She’s been hitting the ball pretty good, and I told her before the game, ‘Be ready. You’re going to bat,'” McDonald said. “It was funny, we were in the batting cages, and I went up to her, and I told her, ‘I’m going to need your bat today. You’re coming in to bat sometime.’ I knew she was going to hit the ball.”
After Owls pitcher Kendrick Sterling retired the leadoff batter in the fifth, North’s Kelsey Lovelace reached on an infield single and Maddi Rutan followed with a single up the middle. McDonald then sent Heafner to the plate.
“I just thought in my head that my team really needed me at that point, and I’ve been working the whole season on my hitting, and it really paid off because I went up there, and I just relaxed and I hit the ball,” Heafner said. “My team needed me, so I did my job, I feel like.”
Heafner then smacked one over the fence to give the Bull Dogs (5-1) a 4-2 lead.
“I was just looking to score a run and get the runners around the bases,” Heafner said. “That way, we could get the runs back up on the board and get ahead. I wasn’t looking to hit a home run at all. ‘Think small; hit big.'”
The home run was the first of her high school career for Heafner, who stands just 5-0 3/4 and weighs 118 pounds.
“I cried because it feels good,” Heafner said. “The whole time I was running bases, I just wanted to hug my dad (Lee), because my dad has been my biggest supporter my whole life.”
The Owls (3-1) didn’t go away quitely, though. They scored an unearned run in the seventh and had runners at second and third before Maddi Rutan coaxed a groundout to second to preserve the win.
Rutan allowed eight hits and struck out 10 in picking up the win. She gave up a pair of solo home runs, a game-tying shot to Sterling in the fourth and a blast by Kendall Allman in the fifth that gave Seymour a 2-1 lead.
North’s first run came in the third when Lexi Heafner and Josie Lemmons opened with singles and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. After a one-out intentional walk to Rutan, Kaylee Cowan lifted a fly ball to right field. Lexi Heafner faked coming home, returning to third, but when the throw to the plate got away from the catcher, she scampered home.
“That was a little more taxing than I thought it would be,” McDonald said. “(Former North coach Jerry Burton has) done a great job with (Seymour) coaching. I didn’t figure they’d touch Maddi, and they did. They were out to get us. I think we took them a little light, and that’s my job to get them fired up and make sure we’re in every game.”
The Bull Dogs host Franklin Central on Thursday and will play three games in their six-team invitational on Saturday.
“We have a tough two weeks,” McDonald said. “If we get by these two weeks, the back of our schedule, we don’t face the kind of caliber teams we’re facing right now.”
