ELGIN — When Addi Hanna finally realized the ball had cleared the centerfield wall, her Cache softball coaches had to tell her to slow down and make sure she touched the bags.
Even after arriving back in the dugout with her jubilant Lady Bulldog teammates engulfing her in a sea of hugs and loud cheers, Hanna was still in shock.
“In the dugout, everything was just running through my mind, ‘I’ve never done this before. This is just crazy,’” Hanna recalled after hitting her 2-run game-tying home run in the sixth inning, the first of her career. “I was just in shock.”
Elgin was shocked, too, as Hanna proceeded to hit another 2-run home run in the seventh inning to propel Cache to an 11-8 victory over its rival after erasing an 8-2 deficit on Tuesday evening.
“You’ve got to give those girls credit. They cannot stand losing to Elgin,” Cache coach Miles Smith said. “It would’ve been really easy to roll over there. The way they fought and the heart they showed makes you really proud to be a part of that.”
Cache (10-13, 6-3 4A-2) defeated Elgin (15-7, 6-3 4A-2) last month, 13-12, and has been on a roll ever since, going 8-3. With the dramatic come-from-behind win on Tuesday, Cache has essentially locked up second place in the district. The Lady Bulldogs own the head-to-head tiebreaker and only need to beat Anadarko on Thursday or have Elgin lose to unbeaten (district play) Weatherford.
Fed by her teammates’ encouragement, Hanna also earned the win on the mound, notching four strikeouts in relief and holding off Elgin’s final rally, with the game-tying run at the plate in the seventh.
“I just wanted to get the win secured and I felt better when I had my team supporting me and cheering for me on the mound,” Hanna said. “It’s just the best feeling to beat Elgin. Now they can’t say anything that we didn’t beat them because we did — twice.”
Hanna’s second home run came in the seventh when she blasted a ball that just stayed fair down the right field line, padding Cache’s lead to three runs.
“I’ve been on Addi a lot this year because we talk a lot about the high expectations,” Smith said. “You want someone to have high expectations for you because you tend to meet them when someone expects that of you. It’s never easy, but she played a great game, maybe the best all year long.”
The junior said she wasn’t even trying to knock it out of the park for the second time in her life, but when she rounded the bases for an encore, she couldn’t help but smile at her Cache crew there to greet her at home plate.
“It’s just the best feeling in the world,” Hanna said. “Just seeing you have a second family with you and knowing they’re always going to be there to support you.”
Hanna had help as Cache teammates Anslie Roach and Krista Yackeyonny, who went 4-for-4, each had an RBI in the first inning, which was tied at 2-2 early.
Before Hanna’s home runs, Cache strung together three straight one out hits during a 4-run fifth inning to spark the comeback.
Hanna, who had 5 RBIs, delivered an RBI single, Yackeyonny drilled an RBI double to the centerfield wall, and McKenna Callarman hit a 2-run double to cut into Elgin’s lead, 8-6, while prompting Elgin coach Levi Garrett to pull starting pitcher Ariel McDonald.
Cache scored nine runs in the final three innings and was aided by several free passes and wild pitches.
“Story of the day we walked nine and hit two more. You put that many on for free, it’s going to be hard to keep them from scoring,” Garrett said. “We need to do a better job of keeping the ball in play.”
Elgin centerfielder Aleigha Lowe, who ripped an RBI single down the third base line to build Elgin’s lead to 7-2 through three innings, made the eye-popping play of the game in the fourth inning when she dived for a slicing liner in centerfield.
With runners in scoring positions, Lowe showed tremendous range and made one of her several Torii Hunter-type catches to rob an extra-base hit and protect Elgin’s lead.
“Their centerfielder (Lowe) my gosh, man,” Smith said. “She probably saved them four or five more runs. She played great and hats off to Elgin, they played a great game.”
Alli Rose hit a 2-run double to center in the second to give Elgin a 5-2 lead, but the Owls couldn’t shut the door on their rival for a second time this season.
“It’s just one of those deals. You never know what’s going to happen in this game,” Garrett said. “It doesn’t matter what sport. You can’t count out one or the other, and credit to those (Cache) kids, they never gave up.”
Rivals tend to bring out the best in each other, and the Lady Bulldogs seem to play their best whenever meeting the Lady Owls.
“The girls are developing this mentality about them that they don’t ever think they are out of a ball game,” Smith said. “They just fight and fight and fight. You heard them in the dugout — their spirit and energy is great, even when down six runs.”
After Cache’s hero hit her first home run, her family, who took video of the momentous occasion, went to retrieve the softball, which now holds a special place in Addi Hanna’s heart.
“I’m going to take them home, my mom is going to write back-to-back home runs on them and I’m going to put them in my room,” Hanna said with a bright smile. “It’s gonna be a prize.”