Leading 4-2, the Lady Tigers wanted an insurance run or two in the top of the seventh inning. They got a lot more than that.
Republic exploded for six runs in the seventh inning, blowing the game open at Rogersville on its way to a 10-3 non-conference win. The Lady Tigers banged out 17 base hits in the Saturday victory.
Ella Young led the way with a 4-for-4 performance. She drove in three runs. Mara Lakey had three hits (including her sixth home run of the season), and Jenna Belcher, Ella Tattershall, and Annabelle Gerhardt-Hobbs had two apiece.
Lakey also pitched a complete game, allowing just three runs – all of them unearned. She gave up five hits, struck out one, and walked one.
Republic scored a single run in the top of the second to take the lead early, when Young doubled home Cass Ellison, who was running for Lakey after a leadoff double. In the fourth, Lakey led off with a home run to make the score 2-0.
Each team scored two runs in the sixth inning. The Lady Tigers got their runs on RBI singles by Lakey and Young.
Republic’s big seventh-inning rally started with one-out hits by Addison Walker and Jenna Belcher. With two outs, Tattershall singled them both home. After Lakey walked, EmmaLee Essary doubled home two runs to make the score 8-2. Gerhardt-Hobbs singled home pinch-runner Arwen Ezell-McKinney, and Young picked up another RBI to cap the rally.
Rogersville scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 10-3, and that’s where it ended.
Republic has won six games in a row to run its record to 13-6. The Lady Tigers haven’t lost since the Ozarks Fall Festival Tournament two weeks ago. They’ll host Nixa Tuesday.
