Rachel Rook got big outs at key moments and the Lady Tigers got big hits at key moments as Republic picked up a 3-0 conference road win over Webb City Tuesday night.
Rook struggled with her control all evening, but struck out 13 batters and worked out of trouble when she needed to. That included a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the 6th inning, when she induced a weak two-out liner to shortstop Kami Holt to snuff out Webb City’s biggest threat.
Offensively, Republic mustered only five hits, but two of them came with runners in scoring position. Karleigh Summers gave the Lady Tigers a 1-0 lead with an RBI single, and Julia Higgins followed that up with a hit that scored two more. That was the only scoring of the night.
“The positive is that we played our worst game of the year and we still won 3-0,” says coach Lee Dishman. “I told them we took a couple of steps back in that game, but we’re going to scratch it and get to work and tomorrow we’ll get ready for Nixa. We’ve got five games this weekend. (There’s) plenty of softball to regroup ourselves.”
Republic is 6-3 overall. They’re 2-0 in the Central Ozark Conference, and they return home for a COC showdown with Nixa on Thursday.