Down goes number one: Comets upset Wildcats in 11-inning marathon

After ousting second ranked Cascade in a Class 2A regional final game a week before, all the BCLUW softball team needed to do for an encore was take down number one Durant in its state tournament opener on Monday night.
           
It wasn’t pretty, but they did it.
           
“I think somebody’s looking out for us. Our kids have a lot of heart, and we just never give up. We just battle,” BCLUW coach Dave Lee said.
           
Eleven innings and one pivotal Olivia Callaway double later, the eighth seeded, 13th ranked Comets (30-8) walked off the field with a 2-1 win and continued their magical postseason run in Lee’s first year back from retirement. Callaway, who has batted .342 with three homers and 31 RBIs in 2016, had been hitless for the entire postseason.
           
“I think I’m like 0-for-16 (before that at-bat), and I finally got a hit. It’s okay now, because it came at the right time. So I feel better,” she said. “It was a game winning hit, but it was also a huge confidence booster for me because I haven’t been hitting at all. It’s a great feeling.”
           
Callaway faced plenty of jams on the mound, but she always kept her cool and pitched masterfully with runners on base. In the first inning, she plunked Durant leadoff batter Shannon Telsrow, who advanced to second on an Aubrey Werthmann sacrifice bunt, but Callaway then retired Haleigh Carnes and Cathy Ralfs to get out unscathed.
 
Read the full story in this week's Grundy Register.