By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline and Chapman softball teams played to a split on Thursday in an incredibly competitive doubleheader that saw the Lady Irish win a 4-3 pitchers' duel, and the Lady Trojans win a 9-7 shootout.
Game One: Chapman 4, SE of Saline 3
With Madalynn Harold and Karlee Zurfluh in the circle, game one was destined to be low scoring, and the opener of this set lived up to the billing.
SES capitalized on an early miscue in left as Kimber Ogorzolka drove in Abby Wyatt to put the Lady Trojans up 1-0 in the top of the first.
That would be all Southeast could muster for a while, however, as Harold locked in from the circle, retiring 11 of the next 12 batters in a stretch that included seven strikeouts.
Chapman responded with unearned runs of their own in the third and fourth to take a 2-1 lead, but in the fifth, SES broke the spell, scoring Riley Donnelly on a Reese Heinrich RBI single.
The 2-2 tie would be short-lived, as Teagan Ellis drove in a pair of runs on an RBI single to left to put the Irish back on top.
Ashley Whelchel’s first career home run in the sixth cut the deficit to one, but that would be the final run of the game for Southeast as Harold cruised through the last five batters to secure the 4-3 win.
Harold finished her day surrendering just two earned runs on six hits, issuing no walks and striking out 11.
Game Two: SE of Saline 9, Chapman 7
With the aces out of the circle, fans braced for a higher scoring nightcap, but that didn’t appear to be the case through the first five innings.
Southeast’s Carlee Dye and Chapman’s Olivia Harold both limited the early damage, and the Lady Trojans held just a 3-2 lead heading into the sixth inning.
Of those three SES runs, just one was driven in, with the other two scoring from third on wild pitches.
In the sixth, the wheels came off for Chapman as three walks, three bunt singles, an infield single, four wild pitches, and a throwing error brought across five Southeast runs.
Not deterred by the 8-2 deficit, the Lady Irish got to work in their half of the sixth, and managed to score four runs on the strength of four singles.
Both teams added one run in the seventh but Karlee Zurfluh slammed the door shut to earn her first save of the season and secure the 9-7 win for SES.
Carlee Dye closed out her day with six strikeouts and no walks in the circle, while Reese Heinrich and Avery Kinkelaar led the charge on the basepaths, combining for four walks, a pair of hits, six stolen bases and four runs scored.
With this result, the Lady Trojans move to 7-2 overall while Chapman takes their first loss of the year at 11-1.
SES will return home next to host Clay Center while Chapman hits the road to battle Concordia.