Fairfield survives first round with 9-7 victory

It was far from easy, but the Fairfield softball team came through with runs when they needed them to move past Fort Madison in Class 4A regional softball Thursday in Fairfield.

The Trojans scored two runs in the final frame and knocked Fort Madison out of the postseason with a 9-7 seesaw victory in the first round of regional play.

Fairfield (20-20) heads to 12th-ranked Keokuk Saturday to take on the Chiefs in the regional semifinals. The Trojans beat Keokuk in 3-of-4 games this season, splitting their most recent doubleheader in Fairfield.

Thursday, the Trojans initially struggled on defense and found themselves down 5-2 after four innings, but they poured in eight runs in the final four frames, capped by a pair of RBI singles from Mackenzi Harwood and Katie Anderson in the seventh.

Harwood, an eighth-grader, also made it on base in the sixth inning and scored the seventh run for Fairfield. Anderson, a junior, went a perfect 5 for 5 at the plate, all singles, and scored twice.

?Katie had good patience at the plate, she was able to wait for the pitch that she was able to slap out to left field and she did it five times,? said Fairfield head coach Bob Bradfield. ?Can?t do much better than that.?

Anderson, batting from the two-hole, scored the Trojans first run of the game in the top of first on a Fort Madison error. A single by Madison Roberts scored Mackenzie McClure in the fourth and brought the Trojans? lead to 2-0.

But the game almost slipped away from Fairfield in the bottom of the fourth. A fielding error charged to the Trojans put runners on first and third with no outs and Fort Madison capitalized. Fairfield committed two more errors in the frame as the Bloodhounds grabbed a 5-2 lead.

?We had too many mistakes that inning,? said Bradfield. ?We must?ve lost our focus a little bit and made three or four mistakes, but Fort Madison was hitting the ball and you have to give them some credit.

?That?s the kind of inning we?ll definitely have to eliminate moving on to Keokuk Saturday.?

After the five Fort Madison runs crossed home plate, pitcher Haley Grunwald took over in the middle of the inning and worked out of the jam to preserve a three-run deficit.

Grunwald pitched the final 3 1/3 innings and allowed two runs, both in the bottom of the sixth, and surrendered two hits for the victory. Starter Alli Deao pitched 3 2/3 innings and allowed five runs, only one of which was earned.

Fairfield scored three runs in the fifth to tie the game at 5-all and scored two more in the sixth inning for a 7-5 lead.

?Offensively we didn?t panic. As the game went on we got a little more patience, waited for a pitch we could drive and had some girls come through with some big hits for us,? said Bradfield.

Fort Madison refused to go away, however, and scored twice in the bottom of the sixth inning before the clutch hits by Harwood and Anderson lifted Fairfield in the seventh.

McClure finished 2 for 4 with a double and two RBI, Roberts went 2 for 4 with a double and RBI, and Marisa Repp added a pair of hits, including a double, and one RBI.

The Trojans went 5-for-5 against Fort Madison this season, with the other four wins coming in a pair of regular season doubleheaders. The first-round postseason win snapped a streak of five losses for the Trojans which extended to last Thursday?s doubleheader vs. Keokuk.

Fairfield vs. Fort Madison (Regional first round)

Fairfield ? 1 0 0 1 3 2 2 ? 9 15 4

Ft. Madison ? 0 0 0 5 0 2 0 ? 7 7 2

FAIRFIELD ? Anderson 5-5, 2R; McClure 2-4, 2B, 2RBI; Roberts 2-4, 2B, RBI; Repp 2-5, 2B, RBI; Williams 1-3, 2B, RBI; Burnett 1-5, RBI, 2R; Ledger 1-3; Harwood 1-2, RBI, 2R

Pitching ? Deao 3 2/3 INN, 5R, ER, 5H, 3K; Grunwald 3 1/3 INN, 2R, ER, 2H, K