By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The heavyweight bout in Gypsum did not disappoint as Southeast of Saline Lady and Chapman played two hard-fought battles on Friday night, splitting the series down the middle.
Game one, a 13-inning epic that took nearly three hours to complete, saw the Lady Irish hand SES their first loss of the season 5-1 before the Lady Trojans bounced back to take game two in a darkness-shortened 4-3 affair.
With these results, Southeast moves to 9-1 on the year while the Irish improve to 7-3.
The first of these contests was a pitcher's duel from the very beginning, with Madalyn Harold and Lexi Jacobson each cruising through the other’s lineup.
The Lady Trojans got themselves on the board when a throwing error on a stolen base allowed Brielle Ptacek to cross home plate, but the Irish would respond in kind, capitalizing on an SES miscue to bring Zoey Peterson in and tie the game at one apiece.
From there, both pitchers buckled down and it quickly became apparent that seven innings would not be enough to decide a winner.
Jacobson stranded five potential go-ahead runs from the eighth through the 12th while Harold prevented four Lady Trojan baserunners from crossing the plate to end the game.
Then, in the top of the 13th, the Irish broke through.
Kaci Heller and Maddie Harold led off the inning with a single and a double before Southeast intentionally walked the bases loaded to create a force at the plate.
Teagan Ellis smoked a line drive right at the Lady Trojan’s first baseman who tried to double Heller off at third, but the throw was offline and Heller came in to break the deadlock after six extra innings.
Chapman would add three more insurance runs and with support finally at her back, Harold slammed the door shut for a thrilling 5-1 finish.
Maddie Harold lived up to her title once again as the “mad dog” threw 195 pitches in 13 innings, including 114 for strikes and a gargantuan 23 strikeouts, walking just five and allowing just one run on five hits.
With the sun already beginning to set, game two got underway and Chapman picked up right where they left off, striking for two runs in the top of the first.
SES would claw two of those runs back in the second and earn two more in the third as the Lady Trojan bats began to warm, with Abby Wyatt crushing a bases-clearing triple to give SES a 4-2 lead in the third.
In the top of the fourth, a scary sight ensued as a play at the plate left Chapman third baseman Abby Martinez motionless on the ground at home plate.
The on-field staff took every precaution, tending to the senior for nearly an hour before she was carted off the field and taken to a nearby ambulance.
Thankfully, Martinez was able to walk out of the ambulance under her own power and did not seek additional medical attention before the conclusion of the game, confirming with Coach Cook this morning that she was okay.
From there, the contest resumed with a somber tone and after just one inning and change, the game was officially called due to darkness with Southeast in the lead 4-3.
The Lady Trojans will travel to take on another NCKL foe next week in Clay Center while the Lady Irish return home to host Council Grove.
Both of last night's games were streamed on Salina Post with audio and video, links to those broadcasts can be found below.