Oakville makes play in 7th, snags win from Central 2-1

By Larry Lewis ~ Southeast Missourian

Senior Cape Central pitcher Holly Schnurbusch put it best when she said, with tears in her eyes, "We went down fighting!"

Central battled to the final out in a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Oakville in a sectional softball matchup at Arena Park Wednesday.

It took a great catch by Oakville's second baseman Becky Wegmann on the final play to put the Lady Tigers away.

Said Cape Central coach Amy Blattel, "That last out was probably the best play I've seen a middle infielder make all year long. That's the hardest hit ball we had all game and she just made the play."

Down 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh with one out, Cape Central's catcher Jessi Snell doubled into the left-field corner. Alex Wieser beat out a dribbler in front of the plate for a base hit, putting runners on first and third. Schnurbusch followed with a groundout to second, scoring Snell and sending Wieser to third representing the tying run with two outs.

Then Trisha Klipfel lined a shot up the middle that appeared to be the game-tying hit, but Wegmann made a lunging backhand stab just over the second-base bag to end the game and season for Cape Central, which finished at 14-14.

The sophomore Wegmann, on her game-saving catch, said, "I thought I had it, then I didn't know if I had it. It all happened so fast."

Wegmann, solid all season with the glove, committed only two errors in about 160 chances.

Winning pitcher Stephanie Fujarski (17-2) said, "Becky has been awesome all year."

Oakville (22-2) broke the scoreless drought with two runs in the top of the sixth inning. With one out, Oakville's center fielder Carolyn Norath walked and moved to second when the next batter Wegmann was hit by a pitch. Fujarski then blooped a single over second base to load the bases.

Cleanup hitter Lauren Schlechte belted a sacrifice fly to center field to score Norath with the first run of the game before Lindsey Bohn singled home Wegmann to put Oakville up 2-0.

Oakville coach Rick Sturm said, "We played for that one inning and we got it in the sixth and made it count."

Cape Central failed to convert a couple of good scoring opportunities of its own in the second and third innings. In the third, the Lady Tigers loaded the bases with only one out, but failed to score.

"In games like this it's important that you capitalize on every opportunity you have," said Blattel. "But our kids never gave up."

Schnurbusch turned in another strong outing as she allowed six hits, struck out eight, walked one and hit one batter.

"She did a great job all day keeping us off balance with the off-speed pitches," said Sturm. "We certainly didn't come in here overconfident, because we had a good scouting report on them and we knew she was very capable of shutting down good teams."

Fujarski held Cape Central to five hits with four strikeouts and one walk, but the nearly flawless Oakville defense -- which committed one error -- spelled the difference.

Said Sturm, "Our defense has been the one consistent thing, game in and game out."

Seniors Klipfel, Schnurbusch and Ashley Foutch, in their final game as Lady Tigers, were praised by Blattel.

"They are a fantastic group of kids," Blattel said. "I had the luxury of coaching them for three years and seeing them mature. They've stepped up and done everything I've asked them to do. They'll be missed greatly."