The Comfort softball team may have been the No. 1 seed out of District 5-3A but they had to battle tooth and nail in order to defeat the No. 4 seeded Jim Ned from District 6-3A in their first-round playoff series last week.
Jim Ned defeated Comfort at home in Game 1, 6-5; the Deer took Game 2, 8-7, but Jim Ned was leading 7-2 in Game 3 before the Deer rallied to score 7 unanswered runs for the 9-7 win.
Comfort improves to 19-12 overall and advances to the second round where they’ll face the Henrietta Lady Bearcats at Whitney High School this weekend.
Game 1 is Friday at 5 p.m. and Game 2 takes place Saturday at noon. Game 3 will follow the second game if needed.
Game 3
Comfort committed six errors in the game, most of those early, and it helped Jim Ned jump out to a 7-2 lead by the top of the third inning before the Deer could correct its course to win 9-7.
CHS scored a run in the bottom of the third, then added 4 more in the fourth to tie it up at 7-7. The Deer took the lead in the fifth after the first four batters reached safely with a pair of singles, a double and a walk.
Emma Wardlaw helped her cause with a 2-RBI single in the frame to give Comfort a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
After giving up 7 runs through 4 frames, the Comfort defense didn’t give up any more runs to the Lady Indians.
Comfort finished with 10 hits and were led by Morgan Hansen who tripled, doubled and singled, scored 2 runs and drove in 2 runs.
Wardlaw hit 2 singles, drove in 2 runs and walked once, Kendyl Rust hit 2 singles, drove in a run and scored, Hope Van Geffen singled and scored 3 times, Kaydence Stehling walked 2 times, scored 2 times and drove in 2 runs, Katie Haffner singled and scored, Layla Castro singled and pushed in a run, and Kippy Sterling walked twice.
Wardlaw gave up 6 hits, only 2 earned runs, 1 walk and fanned 5.
Game 2
Comfort took the second game, 8-7, to stay alive in the series and did most of its damage in the second inning when they scored 7 runs.
It was 1-1 after the first inning but Comfort blew it open in the second after its first three batters reached in the frame via walks to load the bases with no outs. Pitching was a problem for the Indians staff after they issued 13 walks in the game.
Three singles, two sac flies, a couple of walks and an error helped the Deer score its 7 runs for the 8-1 lead.
However, Jim Ned didn’t go away quietly and almost rallied for the win. The Lady Indians plated a run in the third, pushed in 2 in the fourth and fifth frames to trim the lead to 8-6 through five innings.
It stayed that way until Jim Ned made one last push in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, the Indians hit a triple and scored on a ground out for the second out and the 8-7 score. The next batter popped up to Emma Wardlaw to end the game.
Comfort had 5 hits in the contest, all singles after Hope Van Geffen knocked out 2 singles, while Kendyl Rust, Layla Castro and Tori Hernandez all hit 1 single.
Rust, Van Geffen, Morgan Hansen, Katie Haffner, Castro, Hernandez and Kippy Sterling all scored once.
Rust, Van Geffen, Castro and Hernandez all pushed in a run and Kaydence Stehling drove in 2 runs.
Wardlaw went all 7 innings and threw 110 pitches. She yielded 4 earned runs, 1 walk and fanned 5.
Game 1
Jim Ned took the first game and put Comfort in a spot where they had to win two elimination games to advance, but the Deer did it.
The Indians jumped out to a 1-0 series lead with a 6-5 win. Jim Ned scored 5 in the third and another run in the fourth. The Deer tried to rally and pushed in 3 runs in the third and 2 more in the fifth to make it 6-5, but didn’t come any closer.
Comfort finished with 4 hits, singles from Kendyl Rust, Hope Van Geffen, Katie Haffner and Layla Castro. Rust and Van Geffen scored, while Morgan Hansen plated 2 runs. Kaydence Stehling, who walked 4 times, pushed in a run, while Haffner and Castro both picked up single RBIs.
Wardlaw threw 132 pitches in the game and gave up 7 hits, 5 earned runs, 2 walks and struck out 7.
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