Brogan hits for the cycle, as South Range holds off Poland 11-8
Trending
POLAND -- As one of South Range's best hitters, Keira Brogan has racked up plenty of hits in her softball career.
She's hit singles, doubles, triples and even home runs, but never all in the same game, until Thursday.
Brogan went 4-for-5, hitting for the cycle for the first time in her career, as she helped lead the Raiders to an 11-8 victory over Northeast-8 Conference rival Poland.
"It felt good, I didn't really notice it. I was just happy to hit the ball," Brogan said with a brimming smile.
Brogan's efforts in the leadoff spot helped spearhead a masterful hitting performance at the plate for South Range. The Raiders put up 19 hits against three different Poland pitchers.
In addition to Brogan, four other South Range hitters finished with at least two hits, including Anna Aey (3-for-5), Jayli Wilt (3-for-5), Selena DeJesus (2-for-4) and Heidi Bartels (3-for-4).
"I think we just stayed simple in our heads," Brogan said. "We knew we just needed to pick up Jayli (in the circle) -- we had to help her out and we had to get up on the hits. It just worked out. The pitcher pitched it where we needed it, and we hit it."
Hitting has been South Range's biggest strength this season. The Raiders routinely tally double-digit hit totals game-in and game-out.
As evidenced by their hitting performances, everyone in South Range's lineup from one through nine is a proven hitting commodity. The Raiders have no real weakness in that lineup.
After the Bulldogs had rallied to tie the game with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, South Range then responded with three solo home runs in four at-bats. The first came from Bartels in the No. 9 spot, then Brogan got hers as the Raiders went back to the top of the order, and finally Aey went yard in the No. 3 spot to finish it off.
"We were a pretty darn good hitting team last year too -- we graduated four seniors that could all hit the ball pretty well," South Range head coach Jeff DeRose said. "It's just the fact of the matter is I had three or four girls on the bench who also hit the ball well. So we were very deep hitting wise, and we (again) have girls on the bench this year that can hit the ball.
"My pinch hitter today, she's a power hitter. She didn't look good at the plate today, but she just had a bad day. The other day, I pinch hit her and she hit a home run. So we're so deep from one to nine -- our No. 9 hitter hit a home run today, so that goes to show how powerful we are from one to nine."
Poland had to rally multiple times to keep up with South Range.
After a lead-off triple from Brogan in the top of the first inning, right away the Raiders put up four runs to open the game.
But from there, both defenses took control for a few innings until Poland's four-run burst in the fifth. After South Range's home run parade, the Bulldogs did it once again, rallying with a four-run bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game once again heading to the seventh.
"We got down 4-0, and we could have rolled over really easily, but (we) didn't," Poland head coach Jim Serich said. "We stuck a sophomore out there that has pitched minimal innings and we gave her a shot to try to keep us in it, and she did. ... We were right on the cusp -- we make a couple more plays defensively, which we did not, that's the difference. Four runs in the first inning should have maybe been two."
The Bulldogs' two seniors -- Mary Brant and Leanne Williams -- combined for all eight of Poland's RBIs in the fifth and sixth innings, tallying four apiece.
"That's what your seniors do at the end of their careers," Serich said. "Your seniors do that, that makes life easy. The younger kids should feed off that and should get a little better off of that, but if we tighten things up defensively, we got a shot. They proved they can hang with this team twice."
With a tie game, South Range was able to get three RBIs from Aey and Wilt in the seventh inning to retake the lead for good. Poland got a runner into scoring position in the bottom of the seventh, but wasn't able to rally once last time.
"Poland's a darn good team and they proved that today," DeRose said. "Not only that, but they came back (twice). It's hard to come back after three home runs and they did. They answered right away. So hats off to those guys. They played a heck of a game, and I'm sure they're looking forward to playing us again this year (in the Division III playoffs)."
Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.