Softball Team Loses Extra Inning Game At Sectional
28 May 2009

In two swings of the bat, Southwood’s Mallory Harnish did enough damage to send the Manchester High School softball team packing.
Harnish hit a two run home run in the top of the first inning, and crushed a solo shot in the top of the ninth to help Southwood end Manchester’s season 6-5 Monday night at the Lewis Cass Sectional.
It was the second extra inning game in a week between the two teams. Manchester won the regular season battle 1-0.
Harnish’s shot in the first gave Southwood a 2-0 lead, but Olivia Winget followed suite with a solo shot of her own for back to back home runs.
Southwood added one more run in the inning for a 4-0 lead.
Manchester got on the board in the bottom of the first after Katie Bowers singled and Meika Kennedy drove her in with an RBI triple.
Manchester pitcher Jama Runkel settled down in the second and retired the side in order.
Southwood made it 5-1 in the top of the third, but Manchester wasn’t ready to fold up the tents.
In the bottom of the third, Bowers tripled and scored on an bloop single from Kennedy. Kennedy was thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double.
Runkel retired the side in the fourth and fifth innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, Runkel walked and pinch runner Katie Smith later scored on an RBI double from Bowers.
Kennedy made it 5-4 with an RBI double of her own.
The score remained 5-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh with two outs.
Bowers walked, bringing up Kennedy. Kennedy appeared to fly out to center, but Cassie Rogers dropped the ball which allowed Bowers to score and move Kennedy to third.
Hannah Little wasn’t able to drive in the winning run, and the game went into extra innings.
Neither team reached base in the eighth, but in the ninth, Harnish went to work.
After Rogers flew out to center, Harnish cleared the centerfield fence to give Southwood a 6-5 lead.
Wingett reached on an error and moved to third on a single from Elizabeth Barney.
Andrea Case then drove the ball to right field, but Amber Fratus made a shoestring catch and doubled up Barney at first to end the inning.
Manchester, however, went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth, grounding out three times, to end the game and their season.
“We made too many errors in the game, and you can’t do that against a team like Southwood,” coach Todd Volk said. “We made some base running errors that could have given us a couple of runs.
“It’s a tough one to lose, but I’m glad we battled back,” he continued. “I was real proud of the girls, because they always came back in the dugout saying ‘We will get those runs back.’ We did.”
Manchester loses a strong senior class in Bowers, Allison Mussey, Kobie Marks, Fratus, Noelle Patrick, Marissa Johnson, Brittany Watson, and Hayley Shafer.
End Of Regular Season
The MHS softball team showed what they are made of, pulling out two nailbiters in the extra innings in wins over Whitko and Southwood.
It was an old fashioned pitchers’ duel against Southwood, but it was Jama Runkel who got the win on the mound for the Lady Squires in a 1-0 12 inning win.
Runkel struck out 13 batters, including conference leading hitter Lindsey Harnish with runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
In the 12th inning, Meika Kennedy led things off with a double to right center.
Lana Miller struck out, but the Southwood catcher dropped the ball, advancing Kennedy to third.
Amber Fratus then executed a safety squeeze bunt to score Kennedy and get the win.
The win improved Manchester’s record to 13-6 and 4-2 in the conference.
Wednesday night, Manchester outlasted Whitko 3-2, once again, pulling out the win in extra innings.
With Whitko leading 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Allison Mussey got things going with a single. She later scored on a fielder’s choice from Hannah Little.
Katie Bowers reached base after getting hit by a pitch and later scored on a wild pitch to tie it up at 2-2.
After a scoreless seventh inning, Runkel shut down the Lady Wildcats in the top of the eighth.
In the bottom of the inning, with two out, Bowers and Little both singled.
Meika Kennedy beat out an infield hit. Meanwhile, Bowers never stopped running from second and scored the winning run.
Runkel got the win on the mound in relief, throwing three innings of shut out ball.