It was classic Republic softball: power pitching, power hitting, and speed and defense to back them up. The Lady Tigers showed a little bit of everything in a 5-1 win over Central Ozark Conference rival Ozark Tuesday night.
Rachel Rook was masterful in the circle, allowing just one hit and a lone unearned run. She struck out 15.
After Ozark scored in the top of the 1st (on two hit batters and a throwing error), Republic quickly answered with two runs of its own. A single by Sydney Phillips and a double by Karleigh Summers set up the game-tying RBI by Taylor Hulland on a single to left field. Julia Higgins followed that up with a line-drive single off the glove of the first baseman to score Summers and make it 2-1 Republic.
Ozark put together its biggest threat in the top of the 6th inning, still trailing 2-1. A leadoff single and two more hit batters loaded the bases, but Rook struck out Emma Taylor to end the threat.
In the bottom of the inning, Ally Stolte singled, then sped from 1st to 3rd on a sacrifice bunt by Megan Thorne. Alyssa Roth laid down a perfect bunt on a squeeze play to make the score 3-1.
“We had a time out, and (Coach Lee Dishman) said ‘You better freaking get (the bunt) down,’ so when I was up at bat…he finally gave me the sign and so that’s exactly what was going through my head was, ‘I better freaking get it down,’ and I did,” says Roth.
Two batters later, Kami Holt hit a line drive home run to the opposite field in right, making it 5-1 Republic. It was Holt’s fourth homer of the season and the 23rd of her career.
The Lady Tigers improve to 10-3. They’re 4-0 in the Central Ozark Conference. They haven’t lost since returning from a tournament against elite competition in Oklahoma.
“Honestly, I think we’re doing everything really well,” Roth says. “Offensively and defensively we’ve matured, especially since Oklahoma. I think that was a really big turning point for us was realizing, ‘Okay, some teams can beat us, so we really need to step up our game and get better and make other teams play up to our level, and I think we’ve done that.”
The Lady Tigers travel to Neosho for a COC matchup Thursday night.