Late rally falls short for South Putnam

The South Putnam Eagles' softball team finished its conference regular season coming up one run short on Thursday evening, falling to the Northview Knights 8-7 in eight innings as they completed the suspended game from Wednesday night.

The Eagles are now 10-9-1 heading into today's Western Indiana Conference crossover game at Brown County. The Eagles finished WIC Western Division play at 1-4.

Northview won the West Division title with the victory, and will play at Cascade tonight to decide the league championship.

Both teams were swinging the bat well early. The Knights scored two runs in the top of the first to start the game, but the Eagles rallied with three of their own in the bottom of the first. The Eagles put together three singles, a walk, plus a Northview error gave the Eagles a lead.

"I thought we got off to a really good start. That was our focal point. When you play really good teams like Northview you have to do that. I thought we did that," South Putnam coach Jamie Steffy said.

South added another run in the second on a couple of hits to extend their lead to 4-2. Both teams settled into a scoreless duel over the next three innings, until Northview pushed across three runs in the sixth to take the lead 5-4 on a three-run home run by Payton.

The Eagles then came right back with a run of their own in the bottom half to tie the score at 5-5. Neither team could muster a run in the seventh inning leading to extra innings.

The Knights took advantage of a couple of walks and a couple of Eagle errors to go up 8-5 on Wednesday, before the game was postponed due to weather.

South wasn't ready to quit, coming back on a another rainy night to finish the game.

The Eagles posted three consecutive singles to start the bottom of the eighth inning.

Combining that with a fielder's choice, the Eagles trailed by one with the tying run at third base, but couldn't get the runner home to finish the comeback.

"It was right there for us. We have been knocking on the door all year. We have come up a play or two short a lot this year. You have to give the girls credit for being in these games. That is the sign of a young team," Steffy said.

The Eagle offense was led by Katie Hewitt with three hits and Emma Griffith with two.

Makenzi Myers scored twice for the Eagles. South outhit the Knights 12-7.

Northview 200 003 03 -- 8 7 3

South Putnam 310 001 02 -- 7 12 2

2B -- Bratcher (SP). HR -- Payton (NV).

* Cougars lose pair -- North Putnam battled Owen Valley in a pair of softball games this week, despite the bad weather, dropping a 14-4 contest on Wednesday in a WIC game and falling 23-0 on Thursday.

In Wednesday's game, Skylar Clifford accounted for half of North Putnam's hits with three singles.

She had one RBI, and Chlor LaPierre homered and had three RBI.

On Thursday, the Cougars were limited to three hits against OV pitcher Delaney Baker.

Wednesday

At Spencer

North Putnam 000 04 -- 4 6 4

Owen Valley 452 12 -- 14 16 1

WP -- Richardson. LP -- LaPierre.

Thursday

At Roachdale

Owen Valley 693 23 -- 23 19 0

North Putnam 000 00 -- 0 3 3

WP -- Baker. LP -- Johnson.