By Noah Dalton
DUBOIS – After winning two straight, Mitchell High School were narrowly defeated 7-6 on Saturday in a road matchup against Northeast Dubois, thanks to a walk-off RBI single from Ady Kiefer in the bottom of the seventh inning.
After Mitchell’s Page Mullis scored the first run of the game in the bottom top of the first thanks to an error from the Jeeps’ defense, the Bluejackets found themselves trailing by the end of the inning, after giving up three runs, two of which came way of a base hit from Averi Bauer that knocked home two runs, the other on a sacrifice fly from Grace Lueken.
The two sides would remain scoreless throughout the entire second inning, with Northeast Dubois breaking the momentary drought in the third, scoring another run on a groundout to extend their lead to 4-1.
Mitchell began to battle back in the fourth, when a double from Caitlyn Mullis scored Rylee Brazzell for the team’s second run.
Their push continued in the top of the sixth, where the Bluejackets took the lead for the first time since the first inning, scoring four runs before the final out to take a 6-4 lead.
After loading the bases with just one out to start the sixth, a walk drawn by Avery Southern forced home Caitlyn Mullis from third. In the next at bat, Gracelynn Payton singled to bring home two more Mitchell runners. Their final run of the inning came with two outs, when a passed ball allowed Southern to score from third.
After being held scoreless by the Bluejackets in the bottom of the sixth, the Jeeps needed a big inning at the plate in the bottom of the seventh, entering the inning trailing by two runs.
They scored their first following back-to-back doubles from Kelli Merkel and Rhylan Kalb. They then tied the game following a Mitchell error that allowed Kalb to reach home.
The Bluejackets then decided to intentionally walk Ava Helming, loading the bases for Kiefer, who singled on a ground ball that gave Grace Lueken enough time to score the winning run.
Payton and Caitlyn Mulls each finished with two hits to led Mitchell. Payton also had a team-high two RBIs on the day.
Southern took the loss at the mound for Mitchell. She threw four innings, allowing five hits and four earned runs in four innings.
The Bluejackets fall to 13-11. They travel to Salem on Monday to face the Lions (9-14).
