Softball: Plano East tops Flower Mound in controversial eight-inning game

DENTON -- With two on and one out in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie game in its regional quarterfinal matchup against Plano East, Flower Mound's Emilee Burkhardt laced a single to center field. And when the umpire signaled safe after Kelly Powell crossed the plate, the Lady Jaguars erupted in celebration having punched their ticket to the regional semifinals for the first time since 2008.

Only Flower Mound didn't win.

Moments after ruling Powell safe, the home plate umpire called Powell out on appeal saying she never touched the plate and taking the run off the board. East went on to get out of the inning and took advantage of its new life in the top of the eighth when first baseman Sarah Morales singled home the winning run for a 3-2 victory.

The contest began Friday but was postponed because of rain with Flower Mound leading, 2-0, in the top of the fourth.

The win propels East to the Region I semifinal where they will face the winner between Midland Lee and Lubbock Coronado.

"I'm so proud of the girls," said Karen Kalhoefer, East head coach. "I told them it was the man above yesterday saying timeout. We wanted the series, so we can have mini-game. They won the first half of the game yesterday now lets win the second half. That was our approach. It was a new day. We came out and scored runs and Holly (Kern) pitched well and the defense backed her up."

For Flower Mound, a tragic week that included the death of a players' father in an automobile accident came to a heartbreaking close.

"The lord has been good to us this year and during this trying time right now," Larriba said. "It's been a tough week and an emotional week with everything we were going through.

"I told the girls after the game that sometimes you can't explain things. Life isn't fair and softball is just like life. As long as you give maximum effort and attitude that's all you have control over and that's what we gave yesterday and today."

If losing in extra innings wasn't enough, the Lady Jaguars had to cope with the result after believing they had won just moments earlier.

"She was safe but the umpire said she missed the plate," Larriba said. "You know ... good for Plano East. They're a good team. They're going to say [Powell] missed the plate. We're going to say she touched it. It's just tough to have the umpires decide the game.

"The umpire said it was protocol to call safe right away. I'm not an expert of the rules and maybe I need to know them more. But usually they hesitate for a while to let you know there wasn't a tag. But he called safe right off the bat and gave us the indication that she was safe."

LISD officials investigated the potential of an appeal following the game but were told they couldn't challenge a judgement call.

"He called safe and I was looking at him saying 'she never touched the plate,'" Kalhoefer added. "I think if [the umpire] goes back on it, he'll look at it and he never should have called it. It should have been a no-call. But she didn't touch the plate. It was a great throw and a great effort on the slide but I told K.K. to tag her. Him calling her safe was a little different, but I'll take it."

The call overshadowed the play of East center fielder Chandler Cink, who fired a bullet home on Burkhardt's single to put the Lady Panthers in a position to record the out and forcing Powell to try to avoid the tag at the plate.

"I think it took something out of Flower Mound," Kalhoefer said. "Just look at the all emotions of thinking you won and now you're upset and mad. That's a lot of emotion, especially for teenage girls, and then all of the other stuff they've been going through. That's a tough thing."

The victory snaps a six-game losing streak for the Lady Panthers against the Lady Jaguars, who swept East in District 8-5A competition in each of the past two seasons and swept the Lady Panthers out of the playoffs in 2010.

"We wanted to show Flower Mound and all of their fans the real Plano East team," Kalhoefer said. "The team that plays good defense and doesn't make errors and hits the ball well. That's what we did the last four innings today."

The clubs managed to pack plenty of drama into those four-plus innings.

After cutting the lead in half in the top of the fourth, the Lady Panthers had runners at first and third with one out in the fifth but Flower Mound pitcher Annelise Oswalt fanned consecutive batters to get out of the inning unscathed.

However, East evened the score one inning later by taking advantage of a pair of Flower Mound errors. The first allowed the leadoff runner to reach and following an out, K.K. Stevens hit a deep single just off the glove of Flower Mound's left fielder putting runners at the corners. Courtesy runner Jacque Anthony then stole second and the Lady Jaguars cutoff play went awry allowing Rachel Scott to tie the game, 2-2. Morales followed with a rocket up the middle that Oswalt was able to knock down to retire the batter at first. The Lady Panthers had two on with one out in the seventh as well but Oswalt got out of the jam with a strikeout and a groundout.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Lady Jaguars loaded the bases with two outs but Kern got Flower Mound's Taylor Nabors to fly out to deep center.

Kern came up big at the plate as well, opening the eighth with a single before moving into scoring position on a single by Stevens setting up Morales' winning hit.

Flower Mound had a batter reach by walk in the bottom of the eighth but couldn't push across the tying run.

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