By By TOM NYHHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN – Excitement and celebration quickly turned to disappointment Saturday at the Buck Classic softball tournament for the Buchanan varsity softball team.
Heading into the bottom of the seventh Buchanan held a 3-1 lead over Bronson in the title game of the tournament and needed three outs to claim the championship. In the end, it was Bronson scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a stunning 4-3 win over the Lady Bucks.
Two hits for Bronson and two Buchanan errors in the seventh proved costly for the Lady Bucks as they gave up the three runs and the title to Bronson.
"We were playing so well there," Buchanan coach Mike Welsh said of his teams play throughout the day. "You can't blame the kids they were just trying to make a play and one just knocked the ball out of the others glove and then the flood gates opened."
The Lady Bucks advanced to the championship game with a 8-1 win over Bloomingdale to begin the day's action. Bronson took a 7-1 win over River Valley for their right to play in the final.
Buchanan got the big hits early in the day as Emily Ross and Jayme O'Bryant each hit solo home runs in the first inning. The Lady Bucks tacked on one more run in the first to take a 3-0 lead adding another three spot in the second. Both Ross and O'Bryant also collected a double in the game.
In the circle for Buchanan was Lenox, who was throwing a no-hitter through five and a third innings, began to show signs of some back pain was replaced by Kayla Dale for the final one and two thirds innings giving up just one hit.
In the title match-up with Bronson, Ross broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth with her second home run of the day, and an RBI single by Lenox, her second single of the game, gave the Lady Bucks a 3-1 advantage. Again Lenox was tough in the circle giving up just one hit through six innings of play striking out 10. A 3-1 lead look as if it would be enough.
Bronson caught a break when a foul pop up was dropped by Ross after she and third baseman Devinn Adams and Lenox went for the pop up. Ross had the ball in her glove but after a collision with Adams the ball popped out giving Rachel Wisman another shot at the plate. She proceeded to rip a two strike double to left field. Lenox's first walk of the game put the tying runner on at first. A sharp line drive to left field deflected of Kayla Nelsons' glove and rolled to the fence to score two runs and tie the game at three followed by a sacrifice bunt moving the runner up one station putting the winning run at third. A hard hit ball past third baseman Devinn Adams scored the winning run giving Bronson the title.
Buchanan out hit Bronson 8-3 but several base running miscues during the game for the Lady Bucks shut down their threats against winning pitcher Rachel Wisman who struck out 14 and walked just one batter. Lenox fired 10 strike outs in picking up the loss for Buchanan.
"The effort was there and that was as intense as the kids have played all year and I can't fault the kids for their effort at all. If we bring that kind of effort to every game we'll be pretty good. We are starting to swing the bats better again after going through that two week slump where we didn't hit nothing. We're starting to make better contact again.We'll be alright," Welsh said. "We are just going to have to learn from this where every pitch and every play is going to mean something."