Eslinger’s walk-off blast sends Raider past HOIC rival PCM

COLLINS — Mikayla Eslinger was just trying to avoid another heartbreaking one-run loss.

Collins-Maxwell/Baxter’s softball team has six one-run losses this season and another 2-0 defeat.

So when Eslinger came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning with two outs and her team down 2-1 to Prairie City-Monroe, all the sophomore second basemen wanted to do was get the Raiders over the hump in a close game.

It turns out, she did so much more than that in the Heart of Iowa Conference matchup against the rival Mustangs.

Eslinger drove the first pitch she saw from PCM starter Rachel Freland over the fence in center field and the walk-off, three-run home run pushed the Raiders to a 4-2 eight-inning victory Tuesday and clinched a season sweep of the Mustangs.

“My goal was to be confident in myself and do the best I could for my team,” Eslinger said of her first career walk-off homer. “It’s a huge win, especially since it’s PCM. We haven’t always played well against them.”

Troy Houge is in his 15th year as CMB’s head coach and he doesn’t think the Raiders have ever swept PCM during that time.

“It’s a real big win because we are trying to gain some momentum here at the end of the year,” Houge said. “This gives us some momentum, and we swept PCM, which we haven’t done in a long time. I don’t know if we have ever done that since I have been here, but if we have, it’s been a long time. They’ve had a good team for awhile now.”

Both pitchers threw well enough to win.

CMB sophomore starter Abbey Kahler got the win after allowing four hits and one earned run in eight innings. She fanned nine and walked two, dropping her season earned run average to below 1.75.

Freland allowed five hits, three earned runs and struck out five while walking two in the loss. The three earned runs came off Eslinger’s one swing.

“I felt good with the lead heading into the bottom of the eighth,” said PCM assistant coach Rusty Vos, who was thrust into the role of head coach after coach Whitney Plein was ejected in the top of the eighth for arguing against a check swing call made by the base umpire. “We had been playing good defense up to that point and I thought we could pull it out, but one swing did it to us.

“That’s all right. We gave a good effort. We had a good win last night, but it didn’t turn out in our favor tonight. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

CMB (15-13 overall, 11-4 in HOIC) moves into sole possession of second place in the HOIC after the win. It was the Raiders’ fifth straight win and they have triumphed in seven of their last eight.

The one loss was a one-run defeat to Ballard, but Eslinger made sure things ended better Tuesday.

“I was happy for my team. We finally finished a close game,” said Esingler when asked about her initial reaction to the home run. “It was good for myself but most importantly, it moves us up to second in the conference as a team.”

PCM (18-10, 10-5) came into the game winners of six of its last seven but fell to third in the HOIC following the defeat.

“The girls knew what they had to do and they did a good job but didn’t quite get it done,” Vos said.

PCM struck first in the fifth when Madison Foster singled with two outs. Jaiden Rogers followed with another single and Freland, running for Foster, scored following a CMB error.

The Raiders answered both PCM runs with runs of their own.

First, in the fifth, MacKenzie Schmitz hit a one-out single and then stole second. With two outs, Kahler reached on an infield error and Schmitz sprinted home on the play.

“We haven’t lost to a team with a losing record but finishing games has been our problem,” Houge said. “They are starting to get confidence that they can finish now, and they are starting to know that they are not out of the game. That is when this team is going to be real dangerous, when they fall behind and know they are not out of it. Earlier in the year, we just couldn’t rally back to win games.”

Kahler stranded two Mustangs on base in the sixth and got them in order in the seventh.

In the eighth, Abby Waddell led off with a walk and then went to second on another CMB error that put Molly Vignovich on first base.

Mckenna VanVeen moved over both runners with a sacrifice bunt and then Waddell scored on Katie VandeWall’s deep fly ball to right field.

Kahler got out of the inning with no further damage though. That turned out to be big for CMB.

In the bottom of the eighth, Kahler began the rally with a one-out single up the middle. Her courtesy runner Gracie Cheville went to second on a passed ball and Payge Jurgens walked to put the winning run on base.

Elizabeth Jones was put in to run for Jurgens after Abbey Appelgate moved both runners up a base following a groundout to first.

That extra speed on second base wound up not mattering as Eslinger’s bomb allowed the Raider runners to jog home.

“Our 3-4 hitters have been hot lately so I felt good about where we were at in the lineup,” Houge said. “They took a chance by putting the winning run on base when they walked Payge. I told (Eslinger) that she had hit her hard all night long, to just be patient and get a pitch and drive it.”

Eslinger finished with two a team-high two hits. Schmitz singled, scored a run and stole a base, while Hannah Caple and Kahler had the other hits.

Jayci Vos, Foster, Rogers and Waddell had the four PCM hits. VandeWall had an RBI and Waddell scored a run and walked.

CMB plays at Roland-Story at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and then hosts Saydel at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

PCM travels to Nevada on Wednesday. The Mustangs and Cubs will finish the suspended game from earlier this season and then meet in the regularly scheduled game after that.

The suspended game will pick up with the Mustangs batting in the bottom of the third. PCM has one out and leads 2-0.

Notebook

Kahler faced the minimum through four innings against PCM on Tuesday. During that stretch, she recorded four of her nine strikeouts. ... CMB defeated PCM, 4-0, in Monroe in the first meeting on June 3.