The West Platte Blue Jays’ softball team will play for the Class 2 District 7 championship after upsetting rival North Platte 4-3 on Monday, Oct. 21, in Plattsburg.
The Jays will face top seed Mid-Buchanan on Tuesday night after the press deadline for the right to advance to the sectional round.
Junior Sophie Grier was the star for West Platte as she went all seven innings, giving up three runs, two earned, on five hits with 10 strikeouts. Grier also delivered the game’s big hit with a three-run home run in the top of the first inning.
North Platte’s offense got a run in the bottom half of the third inning and another with a solo home run from senior Linny Ramsey in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut West Platte’s lead down to one run.
Grier led off the top of the fifth inning with a triple, but North Platte starter Kate Wolf came back to strike out the next two hitters. Sophomore Brook Allison stepped to the plate and hit a high fly ball to deep center field that went just over the fielder’s glove to score Grier from third to give West Platte a 4-2 lead.
In the top of the seventh inning and one out, Grier came to the plate with nobody on base. Wolf intentionally walked Grier and then struck out the next batter, but Grier moved up to third base after two passed balls. However, Wolf got her 16th strikeout of the game to end the threat.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, North Platte’s Sophie Greer, who already had two hits, came to the plate and doubled to center field to give the Panthers a runner-in-scoring position. A passed ball moved Greer to third, and she scored on a ground out to the shortstop. Grier got the next hitter to strike out, looking to end the game.
Freshman Janika Seckel was credited with two RBI for North Platte. Camryn Kersten was the only other Panther to get a hit off of Grier.