Eastern's softball squad beat Western 3-2 Tuesday night at Greentown in a pivotal Mid-Indiana Conference game that puts the Class 2A No. 7 Comets in the drivers' seat for the championship. <\/p>\n
Western led 2-1 through four innings but Eastern pitcher Abby Oyler plated the tying run with a single in the bottom of the fifth, and Rachel Wingate singled in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. <\/p>\n
Both Western (16-5) and Eastern (17-4) entered the game with 5-0 league marks. Eastern clinched at least a share of its fourth straight MIC title with the win. The Comets face Hamilton Heights today for a chance to win the title outright. <\/p>\n
\"It was two senior-laden, experienced teams really playing hard against each other,\" Eastern coach Jerry Haines said. \"It was really a nerve-wracking game. Every time we thought we should be scoring, somehow we didn't get it. All three of our runs basically were using walks, sacrifices, a passed ball, anything we could get.\" <\/p>\n
After taking the lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Comets just had to take care of business with a clean inning in the seventh. Abby Oyler made sure of that. <\/p>\n
\"Abby came up there in the seventh when she had that lead, she struck out their fourth and fifth batters, which are really good batters,\" Haines said. <\/p>\n
Abby Oyler, who finished with two singles at the plate, threw all seven for the win with seven hits, two walks an earned run and six strikeouts. <\/p>\n
On the Western side, Erika Beeler took the loss, throwing all seven with five hits, six walks, two earned runs and four strikeouts. On offense, Kiersten Durbin had two singles, including an RBI base knock, Abby Renken doubled, and Haleigh Conaway had an RBI single. <\/p>\n
\"We had a lot of chances we left 11 runners on base, left the bases loaded twice,\" Western coach Jim Clouse said. \"I've been coaching for nine years and I've watched [the Comets] win games like this over and over. It's something they've thrived on for years. It was really the kind of game you would expect with two undefeated teams in the conference playing each other.\" <\/p>\n
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