Mathews rallies to beat Windham in wild seventh inning

May 22, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

By ED PUSKAS

BAZETTA TOWNSHIP

Cheyenne Eggens never once considered the possibility that she might be pitching the final game of her high school career.

“No, because you can’t think that,” said Eggens, whose decorated Mathews High School softball career is winding to a close. “You have to think, ‘Never give up. It’s never over.’ We’ve been way behind and still come back.”

Even with Mathews trailing Windham by a run going into the top of the seventh inning, the South Florida recruit said she was confident a Division IV district championship and regional berth were in the Mustangs’ immediate future.

Eggens was right, but Mathews’ 3-2 victory came with drama to burn on both sides.

The Mustangs (15-4) trailed 2-1 entering the seventh inning, but quickly rallied against Bombers pitcher Brittany Knight in their final at-bat.

Maddie Williams dropped a two-strike bunt single to open the seventh. With just about everyone at Candlelite Knolls expecting Lenna Hoff to follow with a bunt, Mathews’ lead-off batter lined a hard single to right past Windham first baseman Sabrina Garl. The ball was hit so hard that right fielder Page Frazee came up throwing to second baseman Ashlyn Riggs, who was covering first in anticipation of a bunt.

The low throw — one of seven errors by the Bombers — skipped in the dirt and the runners moved up to second and third.

After Knight struck out the next batter, Jenna Siefert chopped a 1-2 pitch over the mound and off Knight’s glove to score Williams and briefly tie the game at 2. Riggs charged the deflected ball and fired to first, but Siefert beat the throw as Hoff also raced home for a 3-2 lead.

“I just took a breath and said, ‘This is it. This is when I need to step up to the plate and do my job’” Siefert said. “I did what I had to do.”

Mathews coach Jim Nicula said Hoff never hesitated in racing around third even though Siefert’s single never left the infield.

“I’m probably giving away a little secret here, but there are really no secrets,” Nicula said. “I have confidence in the kids to make something happen. If they can put the ball in play, it puts pressure on the defense.”

Mathews did that throughout the game, but until the seventh managed only a single run in the second inning with the aid of three errors.

“We have some young kids who are inexperienced in this type of atmosphere,” Windham coach Markie Pozzuto said. “Brit is good at throwing her game no matter what the circumstances are around her.”

Knight and the Bombers (23-5) weren’t finished.

Lexi Knight beat out a one-out infield single in the bottom of the seventh. That brought up Brittany Knight, a left-handed slugger Mathews elected to walk in her first two at-bats. The only time Eggens pitched to her — in the Bombers’ two-run fifth — Knight delivered an RBI double.

In the seventh, even with the tying run already on, Nicula had Eggens issue another pitch-around walk. And when Madi Kilgore singled off Maddy Nicula’s glove at third and into left field to load the bases, it looked like the move about to backfire on Mathews.

Lexi Knight appeared to have been able to score on Kilgore’s hit, but Pozzuto flashed the stop sign as she rounded third.

The decision proved fateful when Eggens struck out Sam Dean and Siefet — the Mustangs’ catcher fired to Nicula to trap LKnight in a rundown off third base. A 2-5-2-6 putout ended the game with the shortstop Williams applying the tag on Knight.

Meredith Grimes, who had two hits, singled and scored Mathews’ first run in the second. Brittany Knight and Kilgore had run-scoring hits in Windham’s two-run fifth. Mathews will meet Western Reserve in a regional semifinal Thursday at 5 p.m. at Kent State University.