West Fork rallies from early deficit to top Forest City; send seniors off right

SHEFFIELD – West Fork co-coaches Mary Schulz and Sadie Winfrey both admit trailing 8-1 after one and half innings was a bit dubious, but also knew the game was far from over.

They were right.

The Warhawks sent their seniors off right with a 14-9 come-from-behind victory over cross-divisional Top of Iowa Conference foe Forest City on Tuesday, July 7.

“You know, in the back of my mind I thought, ‘these girls don’t quit,’” Schulz said. “That is what they’ve done all year long. They have been good about coming back, so I was a little nervous.”

Winfrey added, ‘Yeah, we’ve been struggling a little to start off, so I was glad that they were able to come back out of it, come back and get a big win.”

In a rare spot in the batting order, senior second baseman Sydney Nuehring went 2-for-2 with two walks and two RBI.

“The seniors did really well and did what they needed to do,” Schulz said. “Sydney Nuehring hasn’t had a hit this season, she had a double, went 2-for-2, so for her to do that on Senior Night, is a pretty special night.

“And I think Rachael pitched the best she had, besides that one (second inning), but that wasn’t all on her – we had a few errors here and there, but for them to come back and score after they scored eight and hold them to one run the rest of the game, that’s pretty impressive.”

Rachael Hubka struck out five – getting the first two batters, one looking – before she ran into trouble in the second inning. She gave up 10 hits with Forest City catcher Hannah Anderson leading off the second with a double and hitting a two-run double later on in the inning as the Indians more than batted around.

But the Warhawks answered with three runs to cut their deficit in half with a lead-off walk to Nuehring, a fielder’s choice and error on a ball hit by Madisyn Bonner and then back-to-back doubles for Maddie Hubka and Sadie Latham. West Fork scored four more in the third to tie the score.

Forest City momentarily went ahead with a run in the fourth, but it was all West Fork after that.

Part of the comeback effort included making some defensive changes. Although Maddie Hubka started at third, she moved back to shortstop and Haley Grady was inserted at third base. Madison Peterson, who was in right, was replaced by Bonner, who went 3-for-4.

“The changes we’d made was our original starting (lineup),” Winfrey said. “We had been struggling in certain spots, so we thought we would try something different, but we didn’t start out very strong, so we went back to the original (spots) and we played well after putting them back in their (spots).”

Schulz added, “We look good now, you never know. It’s a lot more fun when you have Senior Night and you can come off with a win like that.”

West Fork 14, Forest City 9

For. City       080   100   0     -    9   10     3

W.Fork         134   330   x     -  14   14     2

Winning battery– Rachael Hubka and Kylie Laudner. Losing battery – Kennedy Klein and Hannah Anderson. Two or more hits– FC (Emma Anderson, H. Anderson, Olivia Gayther); WF (Madisyn Bonner 3, Maddie Hubka, Makenzie Fessler, R. Hubka, Kalli Trewin, Sydney Nuehring). 2B– FC (H. Anderson 2, E. Anderson); WF (Fessler, Trewin, Nuehring).SAC– FC, None; WF (Sadie Latham). SB– FC (Erin Caylor, Raina Miller); WF (Latham, Bonner). HBP– None. RBI– FC (H. Anderson 2, Klein 2, E. Anderson, Lanna Johnson); WF (Fessler 3, Bonner 3, Latham 2, Nuehring 2, Grady 2, M. Hubka).