Kylee Savant is congratulated by Doyle coach Amanda Decell after hitting a two-run home run in a four-run third inning against Albany. Savant hit her fourth home run of the season against Pope John Paul II.
Doyle pitcher Marley Oliver winds up against Albany on Wednesday.
Albany's Brittney Turner fires off a pitch against Doyle.
Doyle's Gracie Taylor goes in to tag Albany runner Camdyn Cooper, who was safe at second on the play.
ALBANY – The way it worked out, both teams needed a game like this.
It wasn’t pretty, but it served its purpose, and that may help both participants down the line.
Doyle jumped out to a big lead, but Albany chipped away over the final three innings before the Lady Tigers emerged with an 11-9 win Wednesday at Albany.
“I’m so glad we had a game like this,” Doyle coach Amanda Decell said. “That’s the first thing I told them is I’m glad that we were tested. We needed to see what we would do in a game like this, and I was glad that we pulled through and were successful, but we needed this big-time. It was a big test.”
Meanwhile, Albany trailed by 10 runs going into the bottom of the fifth inning and rallied to bring the tying run to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
“What I told my girls after the game was I’ve never been as proud of them as a team as I was,” Albany coach David Knight said. “In the two years I’ve been there, I tried to teach them how to come back. We’ve always been a team when, if it was going good, we could score a whole lot of runs, and if it was going bad, we didn’t score but one or two and we struggled. I told them when we were down 11-1, I’ve never been run-ruled as a coach and they’ve never been run-ruled as a team since we’ve been together. It was looking pretty bad there for an inning, and I told them, ‘you’ve either got to fight or just give it up and just let Doyle have it.’ But I said, ‘I think you’ve got enough fight in you to come back.’
“I was proud of them that they didn’t give up, because that’s what we’ve been missing,” Knight continued.
Doyle led 11-1 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, but Albany responded with four runs on a pair of two-run doubles from Brilee Ford and Annalea Giamalva.
“We learned that putting together runs can help us win big games,” Giamalva said. “We have to win big games to get to the big game, and it’s our last chance for our seniors, so we’re trying to learn how to put it together with the puzzle pieces that we have.”
Albany cut the lead further in the bottom of the sixth when Maddie Oubre led off with a double, Camdyn Cooper singled, and Oubre scored on Madison Knight’s sacrifice fly to center.
Cooper stole third and scored on Ford’s grounder to shortstop, making the score 11-7.
Albany’s Brittney Turner retired the Lady Tigers in order in the top of the seventh, setting up a two-run inning for the Lady Hornets as Abbie Spring singled past second to lead off the inning and scored on Oubre’s single to center with two outs.
Cooper’s double knocked in the game’s final run before Madison Knight grounded out to Doyle pitcher Marley Olivier to end the game.
Cooper singled and later scored on Ford’s grounder to third, giving Albany a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Doyle tied the game at 1-1 on Chloe Welda’s two-out double in the top of the second after Elise Jones was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
Doyle put together a four-run third, highlighted by a two-run home run to left field by Kylee Savant, giving the Lady Tigers a 5-1 lead.
“Me up to bat, I’m always expecting something,” said Savant, a seventh-grader who leads the Lady Tigers with three home runs. “I always want to drive the ball as hard as I can, so basically I’m just sitting up there waiting for a pitch that I can drive. She just pitched me middle in, and I just drove it.”
Olivier worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the third without allowing a run.
“That was really big because that allowed them to not score any runs,” Olivier said. “The score was already close. It was good to be able to come back in and we were able to hit and go back into the field and get some outs.”
That paved the way for Doyle to add two runs in the fourth on run-scoring singles by KK Savant and Madison Diaville.
In the bottom of the fifth, a bases-loaded single by Gracie Taylor drove in two runs, and a single by Addison Cortorno pushed the lead to 10-1 before Doyle picked up its last run on an error.
“We had timely hits,” Decell said. “We did very well with runners on base. We got the runs in. We took advantage of errors, mistakes. I thought we have looked really well at the plate the past few games.”
Olivier struck out four and walked three in six innings to get the win, re-entering the game in the bottom of the sixth after Welda worked an inning in relief.
“I’m glad we put Chloe in, let her work through some batters, and then I’m glad Marley was able to come in and finish it up,” Decell said. “We needed that. We really did. We needed to be tested. Their top of the lineup is strong. They’re really strong, and whenever you get back to them, it’s always nerve-wracking, but we handled them well.”
Turner, who struck out six in 6.1 innings, re-entered the game with two outs in the fourth after Ford started the inning.
“I think my mindset going in was a little nervous just because I’ve pitched to this team so many times, so I think that the change in pitching really helped … for the next time I went out,” Turner said. “Once you see a pitcher so many times, you kind of get a feel of (being) more confident in the box … so I’m happy he kind of made that change and put me back in because I felt like I was more confident. They were off their toes.”
David Knight said given the recent history between Doyle and Albany, a tight game should have been expected.
“Win or lose, it’s usually a low-scoring game,” Knight said of playing against Doyle. “I think in all the years we’ve done it, it’s never been over three runs difference, so this was just another dogfight in the years we’ve played.”
