Stroke of Luck: Lefringhouse’s drive bounces right way for Liberty softball team in extra-inning victory

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — Lady Luck was on the Liberty softball team’s side on Tuesday.

With Liberty and Pittsfield tied at 2, Anna Dietrich at first and one out in the top of the eighth, Liberty semior catcher Ally Lefringhouse launched an 0-1 pitch from Emma Henry high in the air to deep center field. The ball bounced off the top of the wall and bounced three feet in the air.

“When I heard it hit off the top of the fence, I didn’t know if it actually went out or stayed in, so when I was running, I asked the field umpire, ‘Is that out?’” Lefringhouse said.

Lefringhouse got her answer when she saw the umpire twirling his right index finger, indicating a home run.

“I was like, ‘OK, now I can keep going,’” Lefringhouse said.

That home run gave the Eagles a 4-2 lead, which was just enough cushion to survive Grace Henry’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the eighth and help Liberty escape Vic Callender Field with a 4-3 victory.

“You have to have the ball bounce your way,” Eagles coach BJ Fessler said.

As Dietrich rounded second base, she heard the clank of the ball hitting the yellow tubing lining the top of the chain-link fence.

“I was just running,” Dietrich said.

She saw Fessler in the third base coach’s box raising his arms in the air. Dietrich gave Fessler a high five and raced to home plate to join the rest of her teammates in mobbing Lefringhouse.

“It was just pure joy,” Dietrich said.

The Eagles were not subtle in their celebration.

“They were hitting my helmet so hard and hugging me. One of my teammates (Ava Heming) hugged me like all the way to the dugout,” Lefringhouse said.

The Eagles still had work to do, though. After Emma Wombles relieved Emma Henry to record the final out of the inning and strand runners at first and second, Grace Henry belted a 3-1 offering from Chandler John over the left-field fence to trim the Eagles’ lead to one.

“I was hoping that momentum shift would help us enough to score another one,” Pittsfield coach Ariana White said.

It was not meant to be for the Saukees. Wombles, the next batter, hit a sharp one-hopper back to John, who snared the ball and fired it to first for the first out.

“It kind of stung my hand, not going to lie,” John said.

Pittsfield’s hard-hitting misfortunes continued when Presley Brown lined out to first baseman Claire Obert and Emma Henry scorched a line drive to right field that Shea Ionson hauled for the final out.

“They did what they needed to do,” White said of her hitters in that inning. “We asked them to get in there and just make contact, put the ball in play and make them make plays, and they made plays. There’s not a whole lot you can do.”

The Saukees were three outs away from winning the game in the top of the seventh, but the Eagles scratched across a run to tie the score. John led off the inning by hitting a hard ground ball through shortstop Torie Stambaugh’s legs and to the fence. John reached second, then advanced to third on an Obert groundout.

The next batter, Camdyn Ormond, hit a ground ball to third baseman Sophie Gengler. The ball took a high hop, and while Gengler kept the ball on the infield, John scored the tying run.

“We had to get something going,” Fessler said. “We’re usually a good hitting team, so I was like, ‘We’ll get to her sooner or later,’ but you can’t let the game totally get away from you. We had to do something.”

That manufacturing of a run followed by a scoreless frame by John set the stage for Lefringhouse’s heroics.

“It’s usually a really good game when we play Pittsfield,” Fessler said. “Ever since these girls were in junior high, we’ve had 13-inning games, 11-inning games. We practiced yesterday, and I was like, ‘Get ready. You’re playing a mirror image of yourself.’ We knew it was going to be a battle.”

The Eagles (17-4) have won seven games in a row and have not lost since April 12. The Saukees (12-5-1) suffered their third one-run loss of the season. They have also played three extra-inning games, in which they are 1-1-1.