SPRING HILL – When Emily Kolwicz looks back on the first home run of her prep career, she’ll have quite a story to tell. Springstead’s freshman leadoff hitter made it a memorable moment for all who attended Tuesday night’s softball game against visiting Nature Coast. Three days after the Lady Eagles captured a crisply played 1-0 victory over the Lady Sharks in the Leopard Slam final, Kolwicz’s three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh provided the hosts with an improbable 10-9 triumph over their county rivals.
“It was a great team win. We never gave up and we kept sticking through it. Once I hit it, I knew there were already two people on base. I just needed to make contact and someone would score,” Kolwicz said. “I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to go around the bases and get home.”
It was a thrilling matchup of a couple of teams that came in a combined 33-3, with two of those losses coming to one another. It surely lived up to its advanced billing, though probably not in way most imagined. It certainly didn’t resemble Saturday night’s meeting at Tom Varn Park, nor a 3-1 win for Nature Coast (17-3) when Springstead (17-1) traveled to the Lady Sharks’ field on Feb. 12.
One key difference was Nature Coast did not have the services of pitcher Abbey Primavera due to an ankle injury. Yet the Lady Sharks, with the help of several fielding miscues by the Lady Eagles and possibly a tight strike zone, used small-ball tactics against Springstead ace Kama Woodall.
Only a few nights earlier, pitching back-to-back complete games while battling bronchitis, Woodall was nearly unhittable while shutting out the Lady Eagles. This time, she almost gave up as many runs as she had all season (10).
However, she wasn’t exactly to blame. Springstead sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six times in the top of the second, despite only recording two singles. Twice a ball was dropped at first base on a bunt, and the throw home on a comebacker to the mound was also mishandled as a run crossed the plate.
Two runs scored on Mare Sparacia’s grounder up the middle that was fielded by the diving second baseman, but no play could be made. Also, Alyssa Gonzalez and Cerina Brooks each worked bases-loaded walks.
Woodall got two back in the third on a high chopper to second that short-hopped the charging second baseman, resulting in an infield single. Then with two outs in the fourth, seven straight Lady Eagles reached base, with Paige Pfent, Kayla Cruz and Megan Nelski all singling to drive in a combined four runs and tie the game.
Pfent’s line-drive home run over the fence in left gave Springstead a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the sixth. But in the top of the seventh, Nature Coast pushed three across on a Chyloe Gonzalez sacrifice fly and Chayse Skinner’s two-run single, both after a third dropped ball at first on a bunt.
The Lady Eagles would not be denied, though. Delaney Woodall’s leadoff walk and pinch hitter Stephanie Bunyon’s infield single brought Kolwicz to the plate with one out and a chance to be the hero. She smacked a ball that cleared the fence in left-center, sending the home team and its supporters into a frenzy.
“I just told them, we need to get baserunners,” Springstead head coach Craig Swartout said. “I thought Stephanie Bunyon gave us the best chance to get another baserunner. She was able to get on, and then Emily comes up and hits the three-run bomb. Sometimes things work out and this was one of those times where that stuff worked out. I’m just real proud of the way we fought tonight. We could have laid down but we didn’t, and that says a lot about this team.
“Their pitcher got hurt, but we had our pitcher hurt a couple weeks ago. You go out there and you play. You play the game and you don’t give up until the last out. It’s a good win, it’s a county win, and to beat them twice in four days is something that we’ll be excited about for a day or so, but we’ve got work to do tomorrow.”
The third baseman Kolwicz, who was 2-for-5 on the night with two runs scored, has been a key addition for the Lady Eagles. Through the first 17 games, she had posted a .365 average with 22 runs scored and eight runs batted in.
“We never gave up. We always had our fun but kept it serious and kept the focus on the game,” Kolwicz said. “That boosted our confidence up, but we know that we just have to stick with it and it’s always a battle for us to fight back.
“It was really big. We were really focused to beat them and even though we made a couple mistakes at the end, we just kept together.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.