Central Heights Blanks Jayhawks

By Dustin Kass, dustinKass@miconews.com

The Jayhawk-Linn softball team tried to give its seniors one more game by notching a first-round win in regional competition Monday.

One controversial call worked against that effort.

The Jayhawks were tied with the Central Heights Vikings with no outs in the third inning when a Viking batter tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt to advance a runner to second. The batter dipped her bat just before the pitch arrived, however, and bunted the ball into the air down the first-base line. As Jayhawk-Linn first baseman Taylor McGown rushed in to make the catch just feet in foul territory, she collided violently with the Central Heights player sprinting down the line.

The umpires did not call interference on the play, a ruling Jayhawk coach Brett Kramer came out to discuss to no avail.

The Central Heights batter, given a second chance, singled sharply to left field as part of a four-run inning for the Vikings.

On the offensive side, the Jayhawks continued to have trouble with right-hander Karly Schulte’s array of pitches, and the Vikings seemed poised to break the game wide open in the fourth, as they pushed one run across and had the bases loaded.

But that’s where they remained as Jayhawk-Linn senior pitcher Alexis Billingsley escaped from the jam, keeping her team in it.

The Jayhawk bats never woke up, however, as Schulte notched nine strikeouts in the game.

The Vikings added two more runs in the sixth inning for the final 7-0 margin.

The defeat marked the end of the high school careers of seniors McGown, Billingsley, Lynda Beth, Amanda Black and Rebecca Holloman. Jayhawk-Linn finished the year 5-12.