Double duty

Double duty

Marion honors seniors, clinches postseason berth and top seed

Sports Editor

In an eventful day at Lady Patriot Field yesterday, Marion pulled some double duty against Searcy.

For starters, it was Senior Night and Marion’s Class of 2016 had a big hand in sending their team out with a 10-0 six-inning win against the Lady Lions.

Thanks to that win, Marion (16-6 overall, 9-4 7A/6A-East, 4-1 against 6A-East) was able to clinch a spot in the 2016 Class 6A state softball tournament, which will be held in Sheridan this season.

In addition, Marion also clinched the No. 1 seed from the 6A-East, which will give the Lady Pats an automatic berth to the quarterfinal round of the postseason, where they will play the No. 4 seed from the 6A-South or the No. 3 seed from the 6ACentral. Marion will open its run at the second state title in school history on Friday, May 13 at 3 p.m.

It was also veteran head coach David Horton’s last game as Marion’s head coach at his team’s home field, and he was plenty pleased with his squad.

“I thought we did a real good job today,” Horton said. “Their girl throws it well, but I liked how we picked out good pitches to hit, we laid off the bad ones and our girls came through and got it done.

Hey, 10 runs, it’s hard to complain.”

Marion scored its 10 runs on 10 hits, and seven of those knocks came from the Lady Pats’ decorated senior class. That class has been a part of consecutive trips to the Class 6A state semifinals in 2014 and 2015.

Leading the charge for Marion was senior rightfielder Morgan Weaver.

Weaver went 3-for-4 against Searcy with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI, despite mixed emotions about playing her last game at home.

“It was definitely bittersweet,” said Weaver, a 2015 All-Conference selection. “I was sad about playing our last game at home, but I also knew that it was important to win because we could get a No. 1 seed.”

Weaver scored the game’s first run when classmate Raygan Shelton (2-for-4, run scored, RBI) chased her in with a single in the bottom of the first.

Nobody knew it at the time, but that run would be more than enough to win thanks to another Marion senior.

Senior Mabry Watson drew the start for the Lady Pats at pitcher and worked six innings, allowed just a pair of hits, walked one batter, while also striking 11 Lady Lions out to notch the win.

Watson helped her own cause offensively in the bottom of the second.

Following a Josey Moix walk, Watson (1-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBI) doubled to centerfield to score Moix and when Weaver struck a double of her own, Watson ran in Marion’s third run of the day for a 3-0 advantage.

Senior catcher Micah Tolleson (1-for-2, run, 2 RBI, 2 walks) walked in the third and scored on an error by Searcy’s Erin Thomason.

Watson would reach on a fielder’s choice in the fourth and would come around on Weaver’s third hit of the day, this one a single to left field, for a 50 lead. A Tolleson single would score Weaver from second to make the score 6-0.

Destiny King and Blakeleigh Garrison would each walk to lead the bottom of the fifth off and King would score when senior Kristin Bolton hit a sacrifice fly and Garrison would come around when Watson hit a scoring flyout.

With the run rule nearly in effect, junior Hope Phipps (2-for-4, run scored) led the home half of the sixth off with a single, followed by a hit from Shelton.

Phipps would touch home on a wild pitch and Shelton would score the pseudo-walk-off run on a Tolleson hit to end the game at 10-0.

Marion showed no ill effects following a tight loss to Jonesboro at home last Thursday, which was fine by Horton.

“Just bouncing back from that was really good. I think that was a big deal for us,” said the coach.

The win yesterday afternoon removes much of the drama from Friday’s conference finale in Searcy.

Marion is locked into the No. 1 seed from the 6AEast, though it could still mean plenty to the Lady Lions. Searcy has lost four consecutive 6A-East games to slide to the No. 4 seed from that conference.

If Searcy loses on Friday, they will miss the cut for this season’s state tournament.

First pitch in Searcy is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

By Chuck Livingston