By KYLE MANTHE
TopSports.news
It took nine innings to get on the board but Silver Lake softball kept its season alive with a 2-0 win over No. 2- seeded Trinity Academy in the quarterfinal round of the Class 3A State Tournament on Thursday afternoon in Topeka.
Silver Lake softball celebrates its 2-0 nine-inning win over No. 2 seed Trinity in the Class 3A state tournament. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
“Trinity had a heck of a defense. That’s been the first team to be able to take that kind of pressure this year against us,” said Silver Lake coach Nick Hamilton. “I just knew our girls, not only can they play small ball but we can big ball and eventually we got those hits.”
Those hits for the Eagles came off the bats of sophomore Savanah Wende and junior Kailyn Hanni in the ninth inning. The late-game offense was coupled with a shutout two-hit effort from senior pitcher Kendra Cook in the circle to punch a ticket to the final day of the season.
Silver Lake senior pitcher Kendra Cook twirled a nine-inning two-hitter in Thursday's 2-0 win over Trinity. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
“That’s just Kendra in a nutshell. She’s just worked so hard having confidence because there’s not a lot that’s going to shake her,” Hamilton said. “I told her before she started no regrets so there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s going to leave it on the field.”
Cook breezed through the opening of the game with four strikeouts in the first two innings. The first baserunner of the game reached in the third on a walk, the second Knight to reach came on the first hit of the game in the bottom of the sixth.
At the plate Silver Lake slashed a hit in each of the first six innings but were unable to break the scoreless tie with outs coming on the bases in four of the six first frames. The first runner of the game to reach third base did not come until the fifth inning, with that Eagle runner thrown out going to home.
After cruising through an eighth scoreless inning on the mound Cook led off the ninth with her second straight single up the middle. After being pinch ran for the potential game-winning run moved the second on a groundout and to third after beating out a throw, putting runners at the corners with one out. Wende battled through an 0-2 count to send a single up the middle to score the game’s first run.
With two outs, Hanni sent one past the first baseman to score an insurance run heading to the bottom of the ninth. Cook worked around a one-out single in the ninth but fanned two more Trinity Academy hitters to finish the nine-inning shutout victory.
“Anybody that pays attention to our schedule they see that we schedule some pretty good teams and that pressure early on is what lets us to play late in the season,” Hamilton said.
Silver Lake tallied 10 hits in the game to just two for the Knights, who had the game's only error. Both Cook and Hanni had three hits in the game, while Wende delivered her first to plate the eventual game-winning run.
In the circle Cook finished the game with 14 strikeouts.
The victory for No. 7 seed Silver Lake sets up a semifinal meeting with No. 3 Burlington at 1 p.m. on Friday after the Wildcats dispatched of No. 6 Jefferson West 9-0 in the final game of the night.
SILVER LAKE 2, TRINITY ACADEMY 0
Silver Lake (24-6) 000 000 002 — 2 10 0
Trinity Academy (24-4) 000 000 000 — 0 2 1
Cook. Schellenger. W – Cook. L – Schellenger. 2B – None.
