After rallying from a 3-0 deficit, Oak Grove looked up to pull off a comeback win over Raleigh on Thursday night in the Lady Warriors' home opener.
Ryanne Hornsby, Oak Grove's pitcher, stepped in the batter's box looking to plate the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly. She put the ball in the air, but instead, it went over the right field fence, winning the game for the Lady Warriors, 6-4 in the eighth inning.
"It was a great feeling," Ryanne Hornsby said. "I was excited that I could do something like that for my team. We played really hard today, and I'm just glad that I could do something.
"I was just looking for a deep fly ball and score Bailey (Bishop) from third. I think (the pitcher) gave me a fastball down the middle, and I ended up pulling it, and it just ended up going over."
While Hornsby's bat was key in keeping Oak Grove undefeated and moving the team to 7-0, her pitching has been vital for the Lady Warriors. Hornsby has pitched all seven games for Oak Grove and entered the game with 76 strikeouts compared to just 10 walks. In fact, she has a season-high of 17 strikeouts against Taylorsville earlier in the season. According to her coach as well as father, Benjy Hornsby, the workload is something she is very used to doing.
"She lives for it," Benjy Hornsby said. "She really does. That's why she is there and gets the ball so much. She doesn't get rattled in the circle, which is very rare.
"She has (pitched like that) throughout travel ball and high school when we need her to. She'll throw as many games as she wants to. My No. 2 (pitcher) is injured. That's why she hasn't pitched yet, but she'll probably see a little bit of action this weekend just to give Ryanne a little bit of a break."
The game's start against Raleigh went quite the opposite compared to how Oak Grove's games have gone to start the year.
The Lady Warriors committed three errors in the first two innings, which is how Raleigh jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Oak Grove's second baseman made an error on the game's first batter set up an RBI single. Then two back-to-back errors made by Lady Warriors' second baseman and shortstop helped the second run score.
"We hadn't made that (many) errors all year," Benjy Hornsby said. "I want to chalk it up to nerves since it was the first home game. It was a good crowd and a lot of young girls starting, but we came through offensively when we needed to do.
"It had to be nerves. Our second baseman makes two errors in that inning, and she actually had a .1000 fielding percentage coming into this game."
In the second, Ryanne Hornsby gave up a leadoff double, which scored on a throwing error from Oak Grove's third baseman.
The Lady Warriors tied the game 3-3 in the fourth inning after Ashleigh Niehaus and McKenzie Steward each hit back-to-back RBI doubles.
"There was no quit," Benjy Hornsby said. "I told them that we had to start hitting. We got the timing down, and they waited for the pitch that they could handle. It was really big.
"Our bats are coming around. I have a sophomore that's hitting well over .500 right now. If we can get over our young nerves, we'll be okay when we get into district, I believe."
Despite each team scoring three runs, both Raleigh's pitcher Holly Craft and Ryanne Hornsby had success. Craft struck out six batters and gave up just four hits, while Ryanne Hornsby struck out eight batters and gave up five hits.
The game went into extra innings, with Raleigh scoring their game-tying run in the eighth running, from the runner-on-second rule, from a fielder's choice to take a 4-3 lead.
Luckily, Raleigh committed a throwing error which allowed Oak Grove to tie the game in the eighth at 4-4 and set up Hornsby's home run.
"I would have much rather not have extra innings, but we played it well," Benjy Hornsby said. "We did the right things when we needed to do and executed and then got a walk-off home run there at the end. I think this (win) is a big eye-opener for this team. Knowing that if they get behind, they can still battle back and play the rest of the game very well."
