MOBILE, Ala. – With threatening skies looming and down by a run in the fifth inning, Coastal Carolina coach Kelley Green knew her team needed a lift. Fortunately for the Chanticleers, Abby Jankay was able to provide that lift in a big way.
Jankay’s tape-measure home run provided Coastal with a 2-1 lead and came just before a nearly-two-hour rain and lightning delay, and the Chanticleers added one more run right after play resumed on the way to a 3-2 victory over Appalachian State in a Sun Belt Conference Softball Championships elimination game.
Coastal (23-28) had only one hit before Madison Hudson’s one-out single, and moments later Jankay launched a 1-1 pitch from Mountaineer pitcher Sejal Neas over the scoreboard in left-center field.
“That was huge,” said Green, whose team survived in the tournament’s first elimination game and will now face tournament host South Alabama in a Friday 1 p.m. elimination contest. “A home run in general is so much excitement and energy, it helps energize our team, and that one was just a shot. That’s one of the furthest I’ve seen, that got us going. When we got into that rain delay, there was no doubt in any of our minds that we were going to get this game.”
Lightning sent the teams off the field seconds after Jankay rounded the base on her fourth homer of the year, and after a delay of an hour and 53 minutes, Payton Ebersole and Abbey Montoya singled and Ebersole scored on Riley Zana’s double off the left field wall.
The Mountaineers (29-26) rallied with an unearned run in the sixth inning, but Coastal pitcher Kaitlin Beasley-Polko retired the last five batters she faced after that run to keep the Chanticleers’ season alive.
“When it comes down to it, we didn’t execute in the moments,” said App State coach Shelly Hoerner. “Whether it was offensively when we had situations that we could come through and we just didn’t, and obviously not executing pitching wise. Sejal pitched a good game up until that inning.”
Neas (8-6) allowed the Chanticleers only two baserunners through the first four innings, with a one-out walk to Montoya in the first and a double by Hudson in the second. She had set down eight in a row before Hudson’s second hit that preceded Jankay’s game-turner.
Beasley-Polko (14-10) allowed four hits and struck out seven in a 127-pitch effort that spanned the lengthy delay. Appalachian State’s early run came in the second inning on Addie Wray’s one-out single and a two-out RBI double from Kati Waalk.
“This is the third time she’s faced them in a little bit over a week,” Green said of Beasley-Polko. “It’s not easy to face a team that many times. I thought she did a good job, got into a little trouble at times but wound up getting out of it. I don’t think the delay affected her. To be honest, I thought she came back throwing harder when she came back in.”
The Mountaineers cut the deficit to one run in the sixth when Mary Pierce Barnes led off with a double, moved up on a passed ball and scored on McKenzie McCullen’s infield hopper that was misplayed. McCullen was caught in a rundown moments later on Wray’s ground ball and App State didn’t manage another baserunner after that.