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New London knocked off by Danville
Tigers comeback bid falls short in matchup with Bears
NEW LONDON — New London softball’s season came to a close on Monday night as the Tigers were edged in down to the wire finish against Southeast Iowa Super Conference rival Danville 9-7.
Despite the loss in the Class 1A region 6 first-round matchup, New London, who ends its season at 2-19, never gave up.
Danville (5-20) rattled off four runs through the first four innings.
New London’s first and only run during that span came off an RBI single from Lillie Gallup in the second inning.
Shaylee Brothersen cut that deficit to two, 4-2, in the bottom half of the fifth inning, but the Bears followed with their best frame of the night.
The Bears’ exploded as a two RBI double highlighted a five run inning for Danville to make it 9-2.
“The difference maker was we just allowed them to string to many hits together,” New London head coach Emily Parks said. “We didn’t capitalize on getting outs when needed.”
After a quick bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh, New London showed that it wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Brothersen opening the inning for the Tigers will a walk. A blooper by Morgan Jones put runners at first and second. Then Malott was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
A wild pitch and an error scored a pair of Tiger runs to make it 9-4. Another walk, followed by another Danville error brought two more home and then Maison Nelson delivered an RBI to score Lena Nelson.
In a matter of minutes, the Tigers went from down seven to down two, 9-7.
The Tigers had a great opportunity to get back even more. After Gallup was walked, the Tigers had bases loaded once again with just one out and Kennedy Herrick at the plate.
It wasn’t meant to be. Herrick hit a low hanging pop up to third, which was reeled in by the Bear’s third baseman Aubrey Nahorny.
Before the Tigers could get back to third, Nahorny sealed the game with an unassisted double play halting New London’s comeback bid.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Parks said. “In our little talks we have before going out to bat I kept telling them this game isn’t over, we are not done yet. Our goal was to just put the ball into play, that’s what they did. We didn’t need huge hits we just needed base runners any way we could get. And they did that, by having quality at bats, getting walks & putting the ball in play. They played until the very last pitch. Everyone contributed all game, I’m just so incredibly proud of them.”
With the win, Danville advances to play Twin Cedars on Wednesday.
