NORTH ROBINSON — Rylie Hoepf had been in situations like it before.
Bottom of the ninth, winning run on third base against two-time defending Northern 10 champion Mohawk, two outs.
“I told her after the game — I know I’m hard on you … but the expectation is a little more — and she came through,” Colonel Crawford coach Ethan Weithman said. “We put pressure on them, and they made a mistake. … Rylie isn’t the fastest thing, but she did what she had to do.”
With a 3-1 count, Hoepf belted a ground ball to short that was bobbled and allowed Olivia Friley to score the winning run as Hoepf beat out the throw to first to complete the comeback in a 5-4 win over the Warriors.
“My last three at-bats I was feeling the same way,” she said. “The first was in the bottom of the seventh when we wanted to tie it, and then the second one I got walked, but I was just going up there. … I didn’t hit well in the beginning of the game, so I knew I needed to have confidence. I was trying to crowd the plate a bit, she was throwing me outside, and I went up there expecting to swing at the first pitch every time.
“That last one, when I hit it, I wasn’t feeling very (good), I wasn’t expecting it to go the way it went, but I just tried to run it out because I knew Liv would be there to score no matter what.”
It was the type of finish that showed just how much these Eagles have grown over the past few seasons. And it was their first win over Mohawk since May 4, 2023, when Hoepf was a freshman, as well as the program’s first win at home over the Warriors in nearly a decade (April 2, 2018).
“This year has been different than the past couple years,” Hoepf said. “We’ve been able to fill all of (our positions) … and we don’t have weak spots, so it has been really nice. We’ve been able to make plays, unlike in past years.
“They got up 2-0 in the beginning, then we held them pretty well. It was just hitting for us; we couldn’t put the ball in play (early), and it happens. She’s a good pitcher, but when we finally got that little bit of momentum and it was 4-2, that’s what started it for us. Even when it was 4-0, we were in the game, we weren’t making errors.”
Mohawk opened with back-to-back doubles and then a sacrifice groundout two batters later to take the early 2-0 lead. The Warriors tacked on two more in the top of the fifth with a two-out triple by Katie Woodland followed by an Aubrey Gottfried double that drove in Emily Brickner and Woodland.
Arabella Stratton responded for the Eagles in the bottom of the inning with a two-run single, scoring Saylor Holt and Kinley Hoepf. Kinley Hoepf pulled the team within one in the sixth with an RBI single scoring fellow freshman Adalyn Bond, but Colonel Crawford left the bases loaded.
Friley scored the tying run in the bottom of the seventh with two outs on a passed ball before Hoepf drove her in for the walk-off two innings later. The Eagles had six hits on the night, five coming from the five-through-nine hitters.
“We had a couple big hits from the bottom of our order, which kind of sparked things, and we knew coming into this game we had to stay off (Gottfried’s) rise ball,” Weithman said. “She is probably one of the best pitchers around … (alongside) Rylee Robinson, who we faced already. But that’s why we scheduled a tougher schedule this year; we wanted to face better pitchers. That way, when we come to a game like this, it shouldn’t surprise us.
“At the beginning we struck out a ton, then we were finding ways to put pressure on them. … If she’s striking everybody out, you’re not putting any pressure on the defense. And (when we did), they made mistakes.”
Mohawk committed four errors on the night, all at costly moments. Gottfried had 14 strikeouts and six walks with 154 pitches thrown while Betts fanned a pair and walked a pair with 105 pitches. It was a game where both defenses shined, Colonel Crawford’s ultimately making fewer mistakes to come away with a potential title-defining win.
“This past weekend we had a few hiccups, but it’s all about playing together,” Weithman said. “This was the loudest I’ve heard them in the dugout, and it’s because they were fighting for each other. I would rather play games like this and lose than play a team you know you’re going to pound on, because that doesn’t make you better.
“These are the games that make you better, build your confidence, make you realize you can play against the best teams around.”
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Walk-off powers Colonel Crawford to first win over Mohawk since 2023
Reporting by Zachary Holden, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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