Katie Tanner smacks a double in the seventh inning to tie the game that would go to extra innings.
EPHRAIM—Over the weekend, the Snow College softball got retribution in dramatic fashion for a series it lost in March against College of Southern Idaho.
The Badgers lost three of the four it played in Twin Falls, Idaho against the Golden Eagles the weekend of Saturday, March 20. So the revenge of defeating the same team three games out of four this time around, one on a walk-off home run in extra innings, was fitting.
The Badgers split two games against the Golden Eagles at home on Friday, with a 6-4 win and a 1-10 loss; and then on Saturday the Badgers cashed in with two wins, 12-10 and 7-4.
“We made a pact before we left there that we were going use our field and use our home-field advantage to win this time,” said Coach Alley Gee.
The first game on Saturday ended in a walk-off home run. It was the second home run of the game for Marae Condie, an outfielder and the leadoff hitter, after she hit one out in the first at-bat of the game. And according to Gee, she was nursing an injury to her bursa, which serves as a cushion in the elbow, at the time of her huge game.
“We didn’t even know if we would have her for the game,” Gee said.
Snow pitcher Riley Young “kept them totally off balance,” the coach said. She had 15 strikeouts.
The seventh inning began in an 8-8 tie. Southern Idaho scored two runs to take the lead but could not put Snow away.
Tuerer Bailey got the rally in the bottom of the seventh started with a check-swing dribbler down the third-base line that she beat out for a single. She and one other runner would go on to score off a double that Katie Tanner hit deep in the right-centerfield gap.
Snow held Southern Idaho scoreless in the top of the eighth, then again in the top of the ninth after nearly driving in a run to end it in the bottom of the eighth.
Condie’s walk-off home run came with two outs, two strikes and a runner on third base in the bottom of the ninth. She hit it toweringly high and with room to spare past the fence.
Southern Idaho used two different pitchers in the game but subbed the original starter, Siera Horton, back in the game to close it out. Gee said the team was glad for this, because Condie “had [Horton’s] number” after the home run to lead off the game.
“I’ve never been prouder of a group of girls because of their sheer determination,” Gee said after the win.
As a result of the weekend, Snow has won 16 games and lost 25.
This Friday and Saturday, the Badgers will go north to play another four-game series against Salt Lake Community College. So far this year, Salt Lake has won all five of the games the two teams have played.
Marae Condie (3) rounds third base during her second home-run trot of the day, this one to win the game. Head Coach Chad Larsen high-fives her as Assistant Coach Alley Gee walks to join her and the players to celebrate.
