LARNED — The Hoisington High School softball team traveled to Larned for the third annual Pack the Park event — and a pair of softball games.
The Lady Cardinals won both games of the doubleheader, 10-8 and 12-10.
With the win, Hoisington improves to 5-3 overall and 4-0 in the Mid-Central Activity Association. Larned falls to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the MCAA.
Going into the fourth inning, Larned and Hoisington were tied at two. However, the top of the fourth changed all of that.
The Lady Cardinals’ Haley Acker led the inning off with a walk. Acker later scored after an error left Jennifer Hitschmann safe at second base.
“Turnovers, very disappointing,” Larned head coach Miller said. “I think in that one inning we had two errors before we even had one out. I think Katie Seeman pitched fine. They hit the ball well. We just can’t make that many errors.”
Mykela Riedl followed with a sacrifice fly scoring Hitschmann. After the first two runs scored, Brittney Perez replaced Katie Seeman on the mound for the Lady Indians.
“That was actually part of the game plan to bring (Perez) in part ways to throw them off on speed a little bit,” Miller said. “They hit the ball well. They did. They adjusted. They stayed back and they did a good job.”
Perez began by walking Lindsey Ney, and Katy Willis followed that by driving in a run with a sacrifice bunt.
“We played pretty well,” Hoisington head coach Lee VanScyoc said. “We made a couple of defensive errors that about let them back in, but we had a 4-2 lead and they changed pitchers with Brittney Perez in about the fourth inning and we hit her good in that fourth inning. We scored six runs.
“From there on, she shut us down. Those extra six runs we got off of her proved to be enough for the winning margin.”
Shelby Boor hit a single to right field, driving in a pair of runs and advancing to second base on the throw home.
“Huge fourth inning,” VanScyoc said. “For one, I was a little surprised how well we hit (Perez). We just hit and ran well. I think they made a mistake or two but it was really us hitting the ball sharper than I had anticipated we’d be able to do on her. Again, the rest of the game sort of proved what I thought.”
Acker, who was at the plate for the second time in the inning, reached on an error and two more runs crossed the plate during the play.
Hitschmann got the final hit in the inning for the Lady Cardinals, driving in a run with a triple.
Larned tore away at the lead, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Summer Snyder drove in one run on a double and two batters later, Bailey Schartz recorded two RBIs with a single.
The Lady Indians closed the gap to 10-6 when Kaileigh Dietrich stole home after Schartz was caught stealing second base.
“We closed back,” Miller said. “We didn’t quit. The girls didn’t quit. We were down 10-2 and we climbed back a little bit each inning. We got close in the end, but we needed that eighth inning.”
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Larned got a double from Seeman, who scored on a Snyder double.
Snyder scored on a throwing error later in the inning, but Hoisington closed out the game with a fly out to the  short stop and a line out to the pitcher, leaving Larned two runs short.
In game two, Larned started strong after Dietrich, who went 3-for-5 in the second game, reached on an error and Schartz hit a single.
With two on base, Perez, who went 2-for-4 in the second game with four RBIs, drove the ball over the wall in left-center field to put the Lady Indians up 3-0.
Perez relieved Kala Coulson in the fifth inning and finished the game with six strikeouts. Coulson started the game, going four innings and stikring out three.
Freshman Tana Hickel took the mound for Hoisington, going all seven innings and striking out four.
Hoisington responded to Perez’s homer by scoring seven runs in the top of the second inning, but Larned closed the gap and eventually tied the game at 8.
Hoisington took its final lead in the top of the sixth inning and scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh to win 12-10.