Jones comes up huge in Eagles’ 6-5 victory over Blue Springs

by Michael Smith, Grain Valley News
 
The Grain Valley softball team was in a battle.
 
The Eagles jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Blue Springs in the semifinals of the Class 5 District 7 Tournament Saturday at Truman High School.
 
The Wildcats then put the pressure on Grain Valley with a big five-run third inning to take the lead at 5-4. That could have been a back breaker for the Eagles. However, junior Molly Jones didn’t allow that to happen.
 
Jones hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the third and she pitched three scoreless innings to get the save in a 6-5 victory.
 
“She’s a stud,” Grain Valley head coach Flip Courter said of Jones. “Molly did really good against them last week and she did outstanding the first two times through the order. If we were going to make the move to put Molly in (the fifth inning) was the time to do it.”
 
Grain Valley will play against No.1 seed Blue Springs South at 6 p.m. today at Truman High School in the district championship.
 
After the Wildcats took the lead in the top of the third, senior Sydnee Wagner reached on a booted ball on a grounder to Blue Springs second baseman Maci Cass. Jones then hit the game winning home run as she blasted an elevated pitch over the center field wall to put her team up by one run off senior relief pitcher Lucia Trevino.
 
“I didn’t know if that was going to go out because I have not hit a home run in a couple of weeks,” Jones said. “I was really excited when it went out.”
 
Grain Valley starting pitcher Sidney Hemme got through four innings and allowed five runs (one earned) on three hits, she walked three and struck out four. Jones later took over and dominated the fifth and sixth innings, striking out five Wildcats in the two frames.
 
She ran into trouble in the seventh, though. Trevino and Camryn Hoehns led off the frame with back-to-back singles for Blue Springs. The latter hit came off a bunt from Hoehns and each runner advanced a base to set up runners on third and second with no outs.
 
That put the pressure on Jones, but she was unphased. He got Zoee Burks to pop out to Addie Wright at third base. After that, Grain Valley head coach Flip Courter elected to intentionally walk Natalia Trevino after Jones fell behind in the count 2-0.
 
Cass then ripped a line drive to right field but sophomore Mackenzie Rust had a good break on it and made the catch, which kept the Wildcats runners where they were.
 
“That was the catch of the year,” Courter said. “If she doesn’t catch that, the bases are cleared. Then we have to score some runs in the bottom half of the inning.”
 
Jones then finished off the win by getting Chloe Ring to strike out on a riseball to end the threat.
 
“It wasn’t too nerve wracking for me,” Jones said. “We were the home team and we’re hitting the other pitcher pretty well. I felt like we could scored a couple more runs if we needed to. Since the bases were loaded, we could get an out at any base, so that helped me relax. They didn’t hit anything crazy hard.”
 
Grain Valley (28-6) got off to a hot start against Blue Springs starting pitcher Mackenzie Turney. The Eagles scored one run in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly from Wagner that scored Mackenzie Rust from third and a three-run second which was powered by a two-run double to shallow right field off the bat of Mackenzie Rust to go up 4-0.
 
Blue Springs battled back by scoring five in the top of the third as an infield error on the Eagles helped the No. 3 seed breakthrough. A 3-run homerun from Ring over the left-field fence helped put the Wildcats ahead 5-4.
 
“There were some plays in the field we could have made and some pop ups we could have caught,” junior Madison Rust said. “Other than the third inning, our defense was really good.”
 
After that, Jones' home run and scoreless outing allowed the Eagles to make a comeback.
 
Jones tossed three shutout innings and allowed three hits, walked one and struck out four. Madison Rust went 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI; and Morgan Hart was 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Grain Valley junior Madison Rust, left, was 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI and junior Molly Jones hit the go-ahead home run in the third inning to help Grain Valley take a 6-5 win over Blue Springs Saturday at Truman High School in the Class 5 District 7 championship game. Jones also earned a save in the circle, tossing three scoreless innings and striking out six batters. Photo credit: Michael Smith