Highland Lady Bulldogs softball drops extra inning heartbreaker at home to Gillespie

Tough pitchers and tough breaks have slowed the Highland Lady Bulldogs softball team recently.

On Thursday, April 7, HHS overcame a late 5-4 deficit, but, after going into extra innings fell short, as the Lady Bulldogs dropped a heartbreaking 7-6 decision to Gillespie at Highland High School.

“We were kind of playing catch up the whole game, but we ended up tying them up late. We hit a home run in the seventh (inning) to tie it up and had to play an eighth inning. It was it a one-run game and we ended up stranding the tying run on second (base),” said Highland coach Glen Nicholls.

Gillespie (8-1) took the early lead, scoring three unearned runs in the top of the first. Highland (3-3) got a run back in the bottom of the first to get within 3-1. The Miners added a run in the second and fourth while Highland countered with two runs in the bottom of the second and a run in the fourth to pull within 5-4.

HHS finally drew even in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Maggie Grohmann started the frame off with a solo home run to tie it at 5-5. Grohmann went 4-for-5 at the plate with a homer, two doubles and five RBI.

Highland proceeded to load the bases with no outs and was primed to pull out the walk-off victory.

But Gillespie pitching ace Emma Gipson pitched out of trouble.

“We ended up getting the bases loaded in the seventh and we couldn’t push anybody across and that’s tough,” Nicholls said. “The bottom of my lineup really struggled.”

In the top of the eighth, the Miners pushed across two runs to go up 7-5.

Highland got a run back in the bottom of the eighth as Grohmann doubled home Breanna Habermehl, making it 7-6. However, HHS could not bring Grohmann home from second, as Gipson halted the comeback bid. Habermehl went 2-for-3 with three runs scored.

“We stranded the tying run on second base, and it was a competitive game the whole way,” Nicholls said. “It was a back and forth game the whole way and we just ended up on the short end of it.”

Gipson pitched eight innings and got the win for Gillespie. Sophia Donoho went eight innings for Highland and was saddled with the loss. Gipson also had three hits and four RBI.

This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 9:33 PM.