Lady Hawks getting seasoned late

DONNELLSON – The Central Lee Lady Hawks are becoming pretty good at winning games late… of late.
Not only are SEI Super Conference teams taking notice, but so did the IGHSAU. The Hawks broke into the Class 3A ratings this week at No. 15 with a 12-2 record.
Olivia Day provided the heroics Thursday night with a two-run single to give the Hawks a 5-4 win over Van Buren (4-5, 2-4) in nine innings. The Lady Hawks won in the seventh Wednesday night when Jalyn Hawk singled in a couple runs to give Central Lee a 4-2 win over HTC.
The girls are now at the top of the SEISC at 6-0 and play Chariton at Fairfield Friday afternoon.
Van Buren put a little scare into the Hawks, taking a 4-0 lead off starter Elaine Barlow, however, a couple fielding errors helped the Warriors’ cause. Day had an RBI single as part of a 3-run fourth inning that brought Central Lee back into the game 4-3. Her single to left scored courtesy runner Brinley Hocker from third to tie the game.
Central Lee had two runners on with no outs in the bottom of the eighth. Marie Young grounded into a fielder’s choice at short, moving Day to third with one out. A flyout to right wasn’t deep enough to score Day, and then Aubree Bunnell lined out to short to end the inning and force a ninth inning.
In comes 8th grader Hayden Rule, who shut the Crusaders down Wednesday night in relief duty. Rule retired three of four hitters in the top of the ninth. An infield error allowed one runner on, but the Hawks handled a two-out bunt perfectly to get out of the inning.
Carlee Pezley hit a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth to reach. Jali Hawk followed with a single to left moving Pezley up. Jaci Hawk then grounded out to second, moving Pezley to third on the fielder’s choice and Jali Hawk to second. Day then doubled on a fly ball that Van Buren shortstop Callie Kracht ran back on and got a glove on, but the ball slipped out as she went to the ground, allowing Pezley to score the game-winner.

Head Coach Jason Hawk said this week’s schedule where they’ll play every day but Sunday, is good for the girls.
“I’ve told the girls, this makes you better. A lot of teams we face may be blowing people out and don’t get into these tight situations late in the game,” He said.
“We’re not folding and that’s huge for later in the season when we get into post season, regionals and everything. When you get into those games and they’re tight like this, we’ve been there now. We’ve been there four or five times anyway.”
He said the girls got good pitching and relief pitching.
Several Hawks got picked off at first in what Jason Hawk said was just a lack of focus on the base paths.
“It’s a mental lapse, honestly. They aren’t stealing or anything, but they aren’t concentrating when they’re over there.”
“We got seven games this week, so it’s tough. There’s not time to celebrate this win, there’s no time to celebrate anything this week. No time to even rest this week,” he said.
The Hawks play two games on Saturday, have Sunday off and then play on Monday and Tuesday in a busy middle of the season.
Jaci Hawk, Day, Young, and Jali Hawk all had two-hit nights for the Hawks. Day and Bunnell each had a couple RBIs for Central Lee.