Big time comeback

CELINA - In a span of a few moments, Celina went from being three outs away from a win to being one out away from ending their season.

That's when Celina came through as Hailey Kirk scored after a wild throw from first to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 win over Kenton in the Division II softball tournament opener at Jim Hoess Field on Tuesday.

Celina (9-9) travels to Defiance on Friday to face the top-ranked Bulldogs in a sectional final.

"I was proud of our girls," Celina coach Nicole Driggs said. "It was just one inning where (Kenton) capitalized on a home run. One big hit."

Celina looked ready to celebrate after Maddy Luebke hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. Celina had chances to add to that lead but left the bases loaded to end the inning.

Emily Keith, who scattered six hits in six shutout innings, started the seventh by striking out Tawnie Keen. Molly Pees beat out an infield single and Faith Purtee reached first on a throwing error to bring up sister and pitcher Alivia Purtee. Alivia Purtee took the first pitch Keith offered down the line and over the fence in left to make the score 3-2.

"I had thought about putting her on," Driggs said of Alivia Purtee. "The last minute I changed my thought. That's my bad. I own up to that, knowing she's a great hitter."  

Keith rebounded by getting the next two batters out to put Celina on offense and needing at least a run to stay alive.

"I asked her to pitch a different game tonight," Driggs said of Keith. "She adjusted very well to a different kind of style that she was comfortable with and she got into her groove. We needed to limit our walks. We had nine and one hit batsmen the last time (a Celina win). We decreased it big time."

Alivia Purtee, though, was feeling the adrenaline of putting her team in front. Purtee got Keith to fly out to center for the first out and then enticed Maddie Kuehne to ground to short for the second out to bring up Luebke, who was 3-for-3 and drove in both of the Bulldogs' runs so far. After taking a strike, Luebke grounded to short, but the ball rolled up on the shortstop, allowing Luebke to reach first. Taylor Turner came up and blasted a shot to left-center. Luebke sprinted around the bases and scored standing up as Turner touched second.

After Kirk was installed as a courtesy runner for Turner, Laux stepped up and hit a slow 1-1 dribbler down the third base line. Laux easily legged out the infield single, but the throw to first was wild and allowed Kirk to score the winning run.

"The thing I like in this game was we capitalized on two-out finishes," said Driggs, noting that three of the four Celina runs came with two outs. "We've struggled with that as a team and today we turned it over. We were able to get those finishes.

"We weren't swinging for the fences (in the seventh). We knew we needed a team finish. It was one hit at a time. Even Bailey said 'Man, that was a bad hit,' but it produced. It was a fun game to watch, right down to the end."

In addition to Luebke's three hits, Keith and Laux each had two hits.

The Purtees each had two hits along with Lacie Nichols.