North Platte – The North Platte Community College Knights softball team split a doubleheader with the Central Community College Lady Raiders on Friday afternoon, losing the first game 2-1 and winning the second game 7-6 in extra innings.
The win in game two clinched the number one seed in the Region IX Division II tournament, which will be held in Columbus starting April 29.
In game one, the Lady Raiders got on the board first when Logan Zeleny homered in the top of the fourth inning.
The Knights got the run back in the bottom of the fifth. Samantha Gill singled to left field and went to second on an error by the Lady Raider left fielder. Sara Villalobos drove Gill in with a single.
In the top of the sixth with two out, the Lady Raiders Maddie Kucera hit a ball down to third base that took a bad bounce to reach first base. Kucera scored the winning run on a Carsen Nelson single.
In game two the Lady Raiders scored one run in the top of the first, but the Knights answered back in the bottom of the first by scoring four runs. Makenzi DeCrow drove in two runs, Shelby Belloni and Shelley Heredia drove in the other two runs in the inning. The Knights led after one inning 4-1.
In the top of the third, the Lady Raiders tied the game at four by scoring three runs. Jayd Roberts drove in two runs with a double and Kucera drove in the third run.
Gill led off the Knights half of the third by homering to put the Knights back up 5-4. Allie Vigil scored a run for the Knights in the fourth to increase the Knights lead to 6-4.
In the top of the fifth, the Lady Raiders scored two runs to tie the game at six.
The score remained tied after seven innings. In the seventh, the Lady Raiders had a runner on third with one out. The Lady Raiders Brook Behnk hit a line out to the Knights second baseman Shelby Clark, holding the runner from scoring. The next hitter Kady Lockmon grounded back to Clark to end the inning.
The Lady Raiders failed to score in the top of the eighth.
In the Knights eighth, DeCrow had a long fly that the Lady Raiders center fielder couldn’t come up with and DeCrow ended up on first. Tara Crouch pinch ran for DeCrow. Belloni sacrificed Crouch to second. Crouch scored on a single up the middle by Vigil to give the Knights the victory and the number one seed in the tournament.
The Knights are now 13-24 on the season and finished Region IX Division II regular season with a 6-2 record. The Lady Raiders are 15-18 and 3-3 in Region IX Division II play.
The Knights are in action on Tuesday, April 12 when they face Hastings College JV in a doubleheader at the Wayne A. Dowhower Softball Complex. Game times are at 4 pm and 6 pm CDT.