Hebron overcomes early deficit

Updated: June 4, 2011 8:36PM

LAKEVILLE — Advancing to the semistate championship game was the goal for Hebron on Saturday morning. Little did the Hawks know they would have to first survive in order to advance after a 6-5 victory over Jimtown.

The Jimmies (23-5) put Hebron’s historic run through the Indiana high school softball tournament in jeopardy early with a four-run second inning.

The inning featured bunts and some small ball to score on three hits, including a triple.

“Their bunts killed us at first,” Hebron’s Emily O’Leary said. “We kept making bad throws.”

Hebron (25-5) coach Mike McLindon said his team prepared for Jimtown’s bunting, but failed to execute early in the game.

The second inning was damaging to Hebron, but not a back-breaker. The third inning proved to be pivotal for the Hawks. After taking control with a 4-0 lead, Jimtown tried to finish off Hebron.

“We all had some jitters when we started playing,” Hebron pitcher Mollie Linderman said. “I came in to pitch and was calm, throwing strikes, and knew the defense was behind me.”

Hebron’s starting pitcher Carrie Combs lasted an inning and a third before Linderman took over.

An unconventional double play — tagging runners out at home and third — prevented the deficit from growing and set up a big Hebron third inning.

“These kids don’t want to go home,” McLindon said. “They just kept getting after it. No heads went down when we got behind. They were just ready to go.”

With everything on the line, the two teams struggled defensively, combining for four total errors. The errors were costly, allowing each team to score runs.

The Hawks pushed four runs across in the third to tie the score at four.

Then came the drama. Hebron took a 5-4 lead on an O’Leary solo home run in the fifth. Jimtown evened the game at five in the sixth inning.

A pair of flyouts started the Hebron sixth before three straight hits put the Hawks ahead for good.

“It’s exciting to make more history,” Linderman said. “We’ve made so much history already with winning our first regional and now winning this game to play for the chance for state we might as well win it all.”

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