Katelynn Millard hit a triple well over the left fielder’s head in the bottom of the seventh, putting her and her team 60 feet from the second round. Once she got the chance to score, it was the longest and most rewarding 60 feet of her life, giving No. 4 McGraw a 6-5, walk-off win over No. 13 Hamilton in the first round of the Section III Class D tournament Tuesday at the Blodgett Mills Softball Field.
Josslyn Eaton’s single was a shallow pop fly between the drawn in shortstop and shallow-playing left fielder. The freshman catcher never hesitated, even if she maybe should have.
“My legs were shaking,” Millard said. “I was terrified. I should’ve went back, but I didn’t.”
Millard hit her triple with two strikes and one out in the seventh. She fouled off a couple Ellie Freeth fastballs low in the zone and finally got a pitch a little higher that she could handle.
“The second she threw it I said to myself, ‘That’s my pitch. That’s my pitch all the way,’” Millard said.
Millard raced to third and just beat the throw, then Haylee Bassett dropped down a bunt and reached first when the Hamilton throw went home. Bassett took second after the first pitch to Eaton.
McGraw had to battle back with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 5-5 game. Eaton scored the first run of the inning after Hamilton made an error on a Madison Sweeney bunt. Sweeney came around to score on a fielder’s choice on a Camdyn Caperton ground ball.
Hamilton took a 5-3 lead with three runs in the top of the fifth. Freeth punished balls at the plate all day and hit an RBI triple in the fifth, Adriana Catania hit a sacrifice fly and Alexis LaFrance scored on a McGraw error.
The Eagles appeared to have the win sucked out of them after the fifth, with a couple defensive miscues fueling the Hamilton rally. They regrouped like normal and made sure this wasn’t their final game.
“This team really has had each other’s back the entire year,” Kris Terwilliger said. “They’re young, but the best part about this team is they’re best friends off the field as well. When one thing goes wrong with one person the girls just pick each other up.”
“For our seniors, we just did not want that to be their last game,” Remi Stull added.
Hamilton opened the scoring in the second with a two-out RBI single from Isadora Catania. McGraw posted three runs in the bottom half, with Bassett and Eaton scoring on wild pitches and Caperton plating Hannah Wilson with a groundout.
Adriana Catania doubled in Freeth in the top of the third to make it 3-2 McGraw.
Stull tossed the first five innings for McGraw, making her sectional debut as an eighth grader. Stull struck out three and allowed five runs, four earned, on 10 hits and no walks. She was put into a stressful situation but felt ready to the challenge.
“I was very nervous as an eighth grader on varsity,” Stull said. “I’ve had a few good games leading up to this, so I was just really hoping that my defense could have my back because I know they have a good offense.”
Abby Lakie relieved Stull for the sixth and seventh, dominating the Emerald Knights’ lineup. She went two perfect innings and got out of the top of the seventh on five pitches.
Millard finished with a double, a triple and a run scored, Eaton had two hits, an RBI and two runs, Bassett singled, walked and scored, Wilson walked twice and scored, Sweeney walked and scored, Caperton and Leah Terwilliger each singled and Stull was hit by a pitch.
McGraw will now host No. 5 Oriskany (18-2) in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Blodgett Mills Softball Field. The Eagles will look to continue their best season in 25 years after picking up their 10th win of the campaign.
“This is the most amazing feeling I’ve had,” Millard said.
“It’s crazy because we’ve been playing on the same team since 8U and this is our goal and we’ve finally reached it,” Stull added.
