Softball: Cal-Mum survives scare, advances to sectional semifinal

CALEDONIA — Bishop Kearney got out to an early 4-0 lead before the Red Raiders stormed back to win 7-5 in the quarterfinal round of sectionals on Thursday. Cal-Mum senior pitcher Kelsey McMullen pitched a complete game and had two RBI in the win.

“I’m gonna go with Kelsey pretty much until it looks like we’re not coming back to win the game,” Cal-Mum manager Dan Dickens said about his decision to let McMullen continue pitching after getting down 4-0. “She was getting ahead, she wasn’t walking girls… I didn’t think they really hit her hard.”

McMullen got herself out of a jam in the first when the Kings loaded the bases and were only able to score one run. A fielding error in the third inning accounted for another run for the ninth-seeded Kings. The Raiders senior captain gave up two more runs in the fourth before the Cal-Mum bats began to wake up.

Cal-Mum senior third baseman Courtney Flagler led off the bottom of the fourth with a stand-up double, and McMullen drove her in with a triple to centerfield. Junior catcher Halle Platten followed that up with a sacrifice to drive in McMullen, cutting the Kings lead to just two after four innings.

McMullen started another rally in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly to leftfield. Platten then reached first base on a strikeout, which allowed sophomore Emily MacDonald to score another run, tying the game at four. Junior outfielder Sasha Flint hit an RBI single to right, and the Raiders scored another run on a passed ball.

“We’ve got some good speed and we run the bases well,” Dickens said. “So getting girls on abse, being able to do some bunting and putting the ball in play, trying to get them to make some mistakes… fortunately for us we were able to take advantage of that.”

In the sixth inning with her team up 6-4, Raiders freshman second baseman Gillian Flint reached base on a bunt single, stole second, reached third on a wild pitch, then scored a run on passed ball.

Bishop Kearney was able to score one run on a double followed by a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, before McMullen induced another pop-up to end the game.

Cal-Mum (16-2) will play either Marion or Perry/Morris on Tuesday in the sectional semifinals.