Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn scored the tying and the winning runs with two out in the bottom of the seventh to slip past Unity Christian 4-3 June 9 at Hartley. With the win, HMS improved to 2-3 in the War Eagle Conference.
In that seventh inning Abby Kunzman hit a one-out single and Morgan Grooters was hit by a pitch. The runners advanced on a groundout to the pitcher. Frankie Mohni then singled to drive in Kunzman with the tying run. Eliza Tewes followed and delivered the walk-off base hit with Grooters scoring the winning run.
The Hawks were far from perfect, but head coach Stephanie Bronstad was not about to turn down the W. “A win is a WIN!” said Bronstad. The girls batted okay. Gracie (Knobloch) had a few more pitches tonight than we had hoped but pitched well. We had a few errors that cost us a few runs that didn’t need to be, but overall a good game.”
The contest was close throughout. Each team scored a run in the second inning and again in the fourth. Knobloch doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the second while the fourth inning featured consecutive base hits by Mohni, Tewes and Knobloch. The Knights got their go-ahead run in the seventh when the leadoff batter singled, stole second and third base and then came home on an error.
Knobloch went 3-for-3, including a double in the sixth inning. Tewes was 2-for-3, Mohni 2-for-4 and Kunzman 1-for-3. Each team left six runners on base.
While in the pitching circle, Knobloch struck out 11 Unity batters and walked two. She allowed five hits. Despite the error in the seventh inning, all three of the runs by the Knights were earned.
Unity 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 – 3
HMS 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 – 4