Lady Mt'neers win districts in walk-off fashion against rival Diamond

The Lady Mt’neers avenged last season’s district loss to Diamond Tuesday night, May 9, with their 34th win of the season. The Harley Daniels two-run walk-off double gave Mt. Vernon a 7-6 win over the Lady Wildcats.
The week began Monday night with a showdown against a Pierce City team that nearly knocked off the Lady Mt’neers less than a month ago. After a scoreless start to the game, the Lady Mt’neers got on the board in the bottom of the second inning thanks to a home run off the bat of sophomore Rae Downing.
Pierce City was able to generate some traffic, but senior pitcher Harley Daniels was lethal on the mound once again Monday night, and was able to work around a couple hits and kept the game scoreless after three and a half innings. Mt. Vernon struck again in the bottom of the fourth as a passed ball doubled the Lady Mt’neer lead. Daniels helped her own cause in the fifth inning with an RBI single. Pierce City plated one across in the top of the seventh inning, but the Lady Mt’neers held on to a 3-1 semifinal win to set up a fourth matchup with Diamond with the district title on the line.
The district championship game against Diamond did not start favorably for the Lady Mt’neers, as the first three Lady Wildcat hitters got hits including back-to-back doubles and took a three-run lead before the Lady Mt’neers dug into the batters box. Zeros plagued the scoreboard as neither team was able to touch home until the top of the fifth. Diamond capitalized on a single and a Mt. Vernon error to extend the lead 4-0.
Mt. Vernon finally started to get the offense rolling in the bottom of the fifth when a walk of Molly Daniels brought home the first Mt. Vernon run of the game. Back-to-back two-RBI doubles from Allie Schubert and Harley Daniels flipped the script and this one saw Mt. Vernon on top 5-4. The lead didn’t last long, as another Lady Mt’neer error saw two more runs come across for Diamond and the Lady Wildcats held a 6-5 lead after six innings.
Diamond threatened to extend the lead in the top of the seventh thanks to a walk and an error, but Harley Daniels was able to escape with no damage done. The Lady Mt’neers came up to the plate in the bottom of the inning needing one run to keep their season alive and Molly Daniels came to the aide of the Lady Mt’neers. She hit a leadoff double down the third base line representing the tying run. Allie Schubert then laid down a bunt trying to move the tying run to third base, but a fielding miscue for the Lady Wildcats allowed Daniels to reach third and they also failed to get Schubert out at first. Schubert then stole second, as the winning run moved to second base. The next batter was Harley Daniels, and on the second pitch of the at-bat, Daniels shot a fastball into center field scoring two runs, winning the game 7-6.
The Mt’neers move to 34-1 and are now winners of 26 games in a row. To enhance that growing list of accolades, you can add district champions to this year's team. The Lady Mt’neers advanced to take on Sparta Tuesday in the sectional game with a trip to the Final Four on the line.