Undefeated Holcomb rallies from six down to beat Cooter 18-6 in Tri-County softball championship

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
The Holcomb softball team receives awaits its championship plaque Wednesday at Cooter High School.

COOTER, Mo. - The No. 1 seeded Holcomb Hornets fell behind the No. 2 seeded Cooter Wildcats 6-0 in the top of the first inning but recovered quickly Wednesday afternoon.

The Hornets responded with 11 runs in the bottom of the first inning to move ahead 11-6. Holcomb added four additional runs in the bottom of the second inning and three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as it beat host Cooter 18-6 in five innings in the championship of the Tri-County Conference softball tournament.

“We’ve hit the ball well all year,” Holcomb coach Matt Casper said. “We’ve got a solid lineup top to bottom. I knew if we stayed patient good things would happen. The girls responded well in the bottom of the first inning after falling behind six. They battled back and came away with a good win.”

The Holcomb offense went deep four times. Leadoff hitter Macy Houart hit a grand slam in the first inning, No. 2 hitter Bailey Cupples hit a three-run homer in the second inning, No. 3 hitter Hannah Burk followed Cupples’ blast with a solo home run in the second frame, and No. 6 hitter Montana Long hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning.

“The wind was working in our favor a little bit today,” Casper said. “The girls were patient at the plate and drove good pitches. They did what they had to do to drive runs home and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Houart and Cupples both finished with a team-high four RBIs. Long had three RBIs and cleanup hitter Alyssa Brown was 3-for-4 with two RBIs. No. 7 hitter Kelsi Tucker and No. 9 hitter Carli Morgan also drove home a run for Holcomb.

Cooter recorded five of its seven hits in the top of the first inning.

No. 3 hitter Sydney Chidester had an RBI single, No. 6 hitter Madison Burton collected a 2 RBI double, and No. 8 hitter Aspen Austin delivered a three-run homer for Cooter in the first frame.

“That’s the best we’ve hit the ball one through nine all year,” Cooter coach Clay Snider said. “I couldn’t be more proud of how the girls started the game. They came out intense and wanted to hit the ball. We hit the ball well against a great club.

“But against a team like Holcomb you have to play defense and pitch extremely well,” Snider added. “We struggled to do that in the first inning and ended up giving them 11 back. I thought we played well the next couple innings after that. But Holcomb is a great team and we knew we were going to have to play close to perfect to beat them. But I am proud of the way we started today.”

Morgan pitched all five innings for Holcomb. She allowed six unearned runs, seven hits, struck out seven, and walked one.

Chidester went all four innings in the circle for Cooter. She allowed 18 runs (nine earned), 10 hits, struck out five, and walked seven.

Cooter (12-6) beat No. 7 seeded Delta C-7 16-1 in its quarterfinal Monday and beat No. 3 seeded Gideon 17-2 in its semifinal Tuesday to reach the conference title game.

Holcomb beat No. 5 seeded Southland 12-2 in its semifinal Tuesday before repeating as conference champs Wednesday.

“Winning a conference championship is a big deal,” Casper said. “You don’t get that opportunity every year. We are hoping we can build off of this.”

Holcomb currently supports a record of 18-0. The Hornets will try to complete a perfect regular season when they host Portageville Apr. 27 before beginning play in their district tournament Tuesday at Malden.

“We haven’t suffered a loss yet,” Casper said. “That can weigh on you this time of the year. But I feel like this group has handled it well. We are just relaxed and playing softball. It could be a monkey on our back moving forward but so it hasn’t. We know our district is tough and we will have to bring our best or things could change quickly.”

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
The Holcomb softball team celebrates hittings one of its four home runs at Cooter Wednesday afternoon.

No. 1 Holcomb 18, No. 2 Cooter 6

CHS 600 00 - 6 7 6

HHS (11)40 3X - 18 10 2

W - Carli Morgan. L - Sydney Chidester. HR - Aspen Austin (C), Bailey Cupples (H), Macy Houart (H), Montana Long (H), Hannah Burk (H). 2B - Burk (H), Madison Burton (C). Multiple hits - Cooter: Chidester 2-2; Holcomb: Cupples 2-4, Burk 2-4, Alyssa Brown 3-4.

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
The Holcomb Hornets with its first-place plaque after beating Cooter 18-6 in the championship of the Tri-County Conference softball tournament Wednesday at Cooter.