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The Bluffview Elementary 6th Grade Lady Tigers beat the Columbia 6th Grade Lady Eagles 7-6 Wednesday at the Dupo High School Softball Field. The Lady Tigers showed no quit as they battled back from a 6-0 deficit to defeat the Lady Eagles. Payback for a 6-3 loss the Lady Eagles hung on the Lady Tigers last week.
For the first four innings neither squad showed much offense. Columbia scored 1 run in the 2nd inning, 3 runs in the 3rd inning and 2 runs in the 4th inning on a combination of walks, hit batters and wild pitches. In the meantime Dupo was stymied, unable to generate any offense for the first five innings.
The Lady Eagles had the lead 6-0 going into the 6th inning. In the bottom of the 6th the Lady Tigers exploded, scoring all seven of their runs. The scoring was highlighted by three doubles from Gabby Bilzing, Rachel Donald (3 RBIs) and Leah Campbell (2 RBIs) of the Lady Tigers. Becky Thielemann also had an RBI on a fielder’s choice. Rachel Donald pitched well down the stretch, shutting out the Lady Eagles in the 5th, 6th and 7th innings.
The 6th Grade Lady Tigers have played 4 games thus far. These games were filled in after the Jr High schedules were made. Bluffview Elementary does not officially have a sixth grade squad, but had enough girls interested at that level. Some other schools in the area were looking to schedule games for their sixth graders and several of the Cahokia Conference schools have 6th grade teams every year. The 6th Grade lady Tigers have played Waterloo, Columbia twice and were scheduled to play at Smithton on Thursday, September 10th. They may yet have another game added to their schedule some time next week.
Practices for the squad have been held at the High School field with parent Jeff Donald coaching the team in practice. On field game coaching has been handled by Dupo High Principal and former Varsity Softball Coach Bill Harris. In observing the team you do notice the girls enthusiasm for the game and the generally good attitude of the team. Coach Harris said, “One thing these girls do, when they get behind they enjoy playing the game. They enjoy playing the game! They stay up and they just keep playing. They play all the way through. That’s very noticeable about this group. They have fun playing!”
Girls participating on this year’s squad are Bryanna Bixler, Gabby Bilzing, Caitlyn Brizzi, Leah Campbell, Rachel Donald, Kayley Ehrhard, Mallory Koonce, Charli Kueper, Savannah Maldonado, Alyssa Strubberg and Becky Thielemann.
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