Watson’s walk-off helps Marion salvage split in NLR

Watson’s walk-off helps Marion salvage split in NLR

Marion erases 7- 0 deficit to win nightcap

Sports Editor NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Down to its last strike in extra innings, the Marion Lady Patriots appeared to be on the way to a second straight conference sweep against a conference contender in as many weeks.

Playing the three-time defending Class 7A state champion North Little Rock Lady Charging Wildcats, Marion had allowed a late 6-4 lead to morph into a 12-4 loss in the first game of a 7A/6AEast doubleheader and found itself behind 9-8 in the bottom of the eighth inning, after leading 8-7 in the top of the seventh inning of the nightcap at Lady Wildcat Field at Burns Park.

Normally, that would be an issue, except Marion’s batter was senior shortstop and pitcher Mabry Watson.

With Camryn Martin aboard on second base representing the game’s tying run, Watson did one better, smashing an 0-2 offering to left-center field that carried just enough to leave the yard, giving Marion a wild 10-9 walk-off victory to help it get to 10-4 overall and 3-3 in the 7A/6A-East.

The home run helped Marion come all the way back from a 7-0 thirdinning deficit. “It’s the most amazing feeling, because you know, it’s down to me, and if I don’t get this then the game is over, but I’m glad I was able to do what I did,” Watson said when asked about her big fly after the game.

Perhaps just as importantly, it kept Marion alive in the chase for the overall conference championship, albeit barely. Cabot is 6-0 at the moment, and North Little Rock is 4-2, but those two powers will still play each other later in the season while Marion is finished with each of those teams.

Conference implications aside, Marion head coach David Horton was more than happy to get a split with a perennially tough North Little Rock outfit.

“What I was most happy with was that even though we got behind in that second game and things looked pretty awful,” Horton started. “We got a couple hits, and once that emotion got with us, we were battling the whole way.”

Marion nearly came back home with a sweep. The Lady Pats rallied from deficits of 3-1 and 4-3 to tie the score at 4-4 on sophomore first basewoman Haley Cook’s first varsity home run in the top of the fourth inning.

Watson entered the game in the bottom-half of that inning and worked a perfect frame and Marion surged ahead with a two-run rally in the top of the fifth inning.

With one out, Hope Phipps (2-4, run scored, RBI) singled while Blakeleigh Garrison reached on an error. Phipps and Garrison would score when catcher Micah Tolleson (1-3, 2 RBI) doubled to left-center field for that 6-4 lead.

That lead would hold until bottom of the sixth when the wheels fell off. North Little Rock marched 11 batters to the plate, accounting for six hits, while Marion added in two errors to help the hosts score eight times for a 12-6 win.

The Lady Charging Wildcat rally handed Watson the loss after pitching three innings, allowing seven hits and eight runs, though just four were earned.

Compounding the issue was the last eight Marion batters going down in order after taking that 6-4 lead.

While the eight-run rally cost Marion the opener, there may have been a bit of a hangover that affected the Lady Pats in the nightcap.

North Little Rock struck for a run in the first inning, four in the second and two more in the top of the third for a 7-0 lead, part of a 150 run that bridged the first and second games.

“We really made it hard on ourselves. North Little Rock was on a roll, and they continued that roll on into the second game,” Horton said. “Somehow we turned that emotion around and the kids got hot, hit the bat, Mabry came in, shuts ‘em down and just pulled out a big win.”

Perhaps the biggest reason that Marion turned the emotion around was some much-needed timely hitting. In their first three plate appearances of the second game, Marion left five runners on base. The Lady Pats left 14 runners on base in all, but Marion pounded out 14 hits from the fourth inning on, canceling out the bad luck with runners on.

They hit the comeback trail in the fourth inning when senior McKenzie Shirley (3-5, 2 runs, 2 RBI) reached on a fielder’s choice while Destiny King (1-4, run) reached on a hitby- pitch.

AWatson (2-5, run, 4 RBI) double chased each of those runners in to trim the North Little Rock lead to 7-2 after four frames.

Watson pitched a perfect fifth inning to get Marion back with an opportunity to cut into the lead even further.

The Lady Pats responded by sending 11 batters to the plate, scoring five times on six hits, and tied the game at 7-all, despite also leaving the bases loaded.

That inning started with singles from Phipps, Garrison (2-5, run), Tolleson (3-4, 2 runs), Cook (2-3, run scored, 2 RBI) and a double from Shirley. The Cook hit scored Phipps and Garrison while Shirley scored Cook with her two-base knock.

A Morgan Weaver (2-4, RBI) single scored Shirley to get Marion within a run and Shelton plated the equalizer when she was hit with a 2-0 pitch and the bases loaded.

The next two Marion batters were retired in order, but the Lady Pats had managed to come all the way back with seven unanswered runs. The Lady Pats took its first lead of the game in the bottom of the sixth when Tolleson singled and scored on another Shirley double.

Armed with an 8-7 advantage, Watson ran back to the circle needing just three outs to salvage a split.

She responded by retiring the first two Charging Lady Wildcats on strikes before an error gave North Little Rock a baserunner.

That gave lead-off hitter Sydney Parr (2-3, 3 runs, 3 RBI) the opportunity to spray a triple down the left field line to tie the game, but Parr was stranded when Marion centerfielder Kristin Bolton snared a sinking line drive to end the top of the seventh.

Marion wasn’t able to scratch a run out in the bottom of the seventh, sending the game to extra innings. That calls for international rules, which places a runner on second base prior to each inning, with nobody out.

For North Little Rock, that put Maddi Bobbit on second, and she scored on a Cassidy Tucker ground-out and the Lady Charging Wildcats led 9-8 headed to the bottom of the eight.

Marion’s runner was Cook, but after Bolton and King were retired in order, Martin was called on to run at second with Watson coming to the plate.

Watson, a four-year starter for the Lady Pats, took a strike and appeared to chase a ball in the first two pitches that she saw before smashing North Little Rock starter McKenzie Roberts’ 0-2 pitch deep into the night.

“I was just crushing that pitch, because it was right down the middle,” Watson explained.

“Coach (Rae) Baker and I were saying in the dugout before that inning that there’s nobody we’d want up at the plate in that situation than Mabry Watson,” Horton admitted.

Marion is at home on Thursday afternoon when they host Class 5A power Paragould at 4:30 p.m. The Lady Pats step back into conference play next Tuesday when they travel to play a 7A/6A-East doubleheader at Tilden Rodgers Complex against the West Memphis Lady Blue Devils. The first game will begin at 4:30 p.m., as well.

By Chuck Livingston