‘I just wanted to play for him’: Ruffcorn, Tigers tough out win day after Birck’s death

CANTON, Mo. — Allie Ruffcorn wasn’t just pitching for the Canton softball team on Wednesday.

She was pitching for Carson Birck.

Birck, a 2020 Canton graduate and former Tigers baseball and basketball player, died Tuesday during a work-related accident.

“I cried a lot during warmups,” Ruffcorn said. “I didn’t go to school today. I just wanted to play for him.”

Ruffcorn and Birck were like family.

“My mom and his mom are best friends, and he’s been like my brother figure my whole life because I don’t have an older brother,” Ruffcorn said. “I’ve always called him and his brother Kegan my brothers my entire life.”

Ruffcorn would have made Carson proud with her performance during Canton’s 8-3 victory over Bowling Green at Cotton Bowl Field. Ruffcorn tossed a four-hit complete game in the circle without giving up an earned run, went 2 for 4 at the plate and scored two runs.

Carson wasn’t much of a ‘hoorah’ kind of person, according to Ruffcorn, but she said he would have sent his heartfelt congratulations after the game.

“He’d probably text me ‘Good job.’ He was a pretty chill guy, so he wouldn’t have been like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ He would have just told me good job, something simple,” Ruffcorn said.

After Ruffcorn surrendered three unearned runs in the top of the third, she got a Canton rally started with a leadoff single in the bottom half. She scored on a Macy Glasgow two-RBI double to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 3-2.

“We really needed that,” Glasgow said of her double. “It boosted our momentum. It was definitely a game-changer and got us on the board for some big runs.”

Subsequent RBI ground outs by Chayse Uhlmeyer and Addelyn Baker gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead.

“We just didn’t get down on ourselves, and I feel like that was a huge thing in that inning,” Ruffcorn said. “We bounced back and that helped our momentum the rest of the game.”

Canton gave Ruffcorn some insurance with four two-out runs in the fifth. A Brenna Brewer RBI single, Kielyn Ott two-run double and Glasgow bases-loaded walk brought in those runs after a relatively harmless start to the inning. The Tigers (5-2) only had a runner at first before six consecutive batters reached base with two outs.

“One through nine, all of us can hit,” Ruffcorn said.

Bowling Green coach Dean Streed said even though the Bobcats (0-5) aren’t firing on all cylinders just yet, he is confident that will change shortly.

“We’ve been struggling a little bit with the bats. It’s something that we’re working through,” Streed said. “I still have no doubt we’re going to come alive. We have a lot of good hitters on this team.

“We’re making solid contact a lot of the time. We just have to find those holes and those timely hits.”

A challenging schedule with games against the likes of Highland, Mexico, Louisiana, Elsberry, and now Canton — which have a combined 24-16 record and four of which have winning marks — hasn’t done the Bobcats any favors.

“The superintendent was walking through the building this morning, and he just comes up to me and goes, ‘Your schedule is brutal to start,’” Streed said. “It’s good for us.”

Ruffcorn only gave up one hit after the third inning and didn’t allow another runner to reach second base until there were two outs in the seventh.

“She pitched great tonight. I’m super proud of her,” Canton coach Madison Covey said. “After what happened yesterday, I’m proud of her that she was able to go out there and shut them down. That was the best she’s pitched all season. I’m really proud.”

Birck provided the inspiration.

“This was for him,” Ruffcorn said.