Highland rallies past Pekin

It wasn?t the start Highland softball necessarily drew up, but they battled back on Wednesday night.

A leadoff walk and a first-inning error helped Highland dig itself into an early 2-0 hole in the regional quarterfinal, but after refocusing, everything got back to normal.

?The message was to stop,? Highland head coach Carrie Wieland said. ?That wasn?t us and not what we came here to do. We needed to focus on outs. We needed to calm down and chill out.?

A three-run third inning helped the Huskies take the lead, and a strong outing by freshman pitcher Megan Hoenig helped the Huskies drop Pekin 4-2, advaincing to Friday?s regional semifinal.

The Panthers utilized a leadoff walk, drawn by Zoey Wright, followed by a Highland error, which allowed Sloane Reighard to reach base. The error scored Wright, putting the Panthers on top early.

Courtney Comstock followed up the error with a single, scoring Reighard, putting Pekin up 2-0 before Highland even had a chance to bat.

Comstock took the circle for the Panthers, and shut down a Highland threat in the bottom of the first to preserve the lead, which would hold until the bottom of the third inning.

Highland?s Kylie Wood reached base on a one-out error, before base hits from Aly Stokes and Cheyann Adamson brought Wood home to score. Brylee Carolan notched a double with two outs to score Adamson and Stokes, putting the Huskies on top 3-2.

The momentum carried to the fourth inning, when Murphy Beinhart scored a run for the Huskies to make it 4-2.

Pekin got its best chance to score in the top of the sixth inning, when a leadoff error and a two-out single put runners at second and third. A groundout ended the threat, before the Panthers went down in order in the seventh to end the game.

?I think they were nervous, but I think we shook that off a bit,? Wieland said. ?Megan didn?t seem nervous, so that helped us a lot, and Cheyann wasn?t nervous, with tonight being senior night. We had to stay focused.?

Hoenig gave up four hits in the contest, only walking one Panther batter, and giving up the pair of first-inning runs.

As Highland advances to the semifinal to face Louisa-Muscatine (who defeated the Huskies 5-4 earlier this season), Wieland is hopeful her team stays focused on their game plan moving forward.

?We just need to play our game,? Wieland said. ?Nobody else?s game plan is important. We just have to get girls on base and move them around. Then we have to stay away from their big hitters. They are going to hit the ball, so we need to rely on the defense.?

First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Letts.