Story by Wyatt Ebersole

In two of their most exciting games of the season so far, the Butler Softball team split with a stout Hutchinson Blue Dragons squad on Saturday afternoon in Hutchinson, playing in two very competitive games. The split for the Grizzlies makes them 9-5 overall and 3-1 in conference play and for the Blue Dragons, they are now 15-4 overall and also 3-1 in conference play,

Game 1 

The Dragons and Grizzlies started Saturday's action with a very tense showdown that saw the Blue Dragons win the game on a walk-off, two-run homer to right. The Grizzlies opened the scoring early, as Cady Dickey drove a ball off the wall in centerfield to record an RBI double that put Butler up 1-0 in the first inning. Hutch threatened to answer in their half of the first, loading the bases with two outs, but Allyson Montgomery worked her way out of the jam to keep the Dragons scoreless. After the Grizzlies went down quickly in the top half of the second, Hutch jumped out to their first lead, hitting three-run homerun to go up 3-1 after the first two innings. Butler found their answer two innings later in the top of the fourth when Kendyl Anderson blasted a two-RBI double to right to tie the game up 3-3. Reece Briggs brought Kendyl to the plate two at-bats later with a shot of her own off the wall in right center to put Butler up 4-3. Hutch went scoreless in their half of the fourth and from then on, the game became a pitching duel. Both sides went scoreless in the fifth and sixth as Hutch's Riley Wertz and Butler's Lena Walter kept the opposing bats quiet. The silence wasn't broken until Hutch's aforementioned walk-off, two-run homer to take game one 5-4. Wertz collected the win for Hutch and Walter suffered the loss, despite pitching fantastic in her two and one third innings of work. 

Game 2

The teams played another super dramatic game in game two that went near blow for blow through an exhausting 10 innings. The Grizzlies again, struck first, this time on a two-run towering shot to right field by Ryanna Valdivia to put the Grizzlies up 2-0 after the first half inning. Hutch cut the Butler lead down to one in their half of the inning after scoring one, unearned run, but after that, home plate would go untouched until the fourth inning. After an Aly Hageman single and a walk by Amayiah Hall, JaKeyla McDaniel managed to drop a base hit into left field that brought Hageman, the speedy freshman from Kingman, Kansas to the plate to put the Grizzlies back up by two at 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth. Hutch scored another unearned run in the bottom of the fifth to make 3-2 and the score held this way until the bottom of the seventh when Hutch managed to tie the game up 3-3 to send game two into extra innings. The call that gave the Blue Dragons the tying run was a controversial one, as it appeared that the Grizzlies catcher Cady Dickey managed to tag the Blue Dragon runner, Olivia Sandoval, before she touched home plate, but the umpire stuck with his original call, and an extra innings game was in store. Neither side managed to score in the eighth or ninth inning, but the Grizzly offense burst on to the scene in the top of the tenth. Briona Woods used a sacrifice bunt to move Madi Divis, the extra innings base runner, from second to third to move the go ahead run 90 feet away. Divis would score easily as Kendyl Anderson hit a long double to left center on the next at bat to put the Grizzlies up 4-3. Aly Hageman would follow this up with an unofficial inside the park homerun as she launched a ball to right center that rolled all the way to the wall, allowing her to reach third for a triple, but the Blue Dragon throw to hold her at third was awry, and Hageman sprinted home to put the Grizzlies up 6-3 heading into the bottom half of the inning. Hutch wasn't going anywhere as they managed to score two quick runs to make it 6-5 with only one out and runners on first and third. It was after this that game one starter Allyson Montgomery entered the game trying to save the victory for the Grizzlies. Montgomery did just that, getting the final two outs via a fielder's choice at home and a fly out to center to give the Grizzlies a major 6-5 victory in 10 innings.  

Emma Koeneke put up a great stat line in her game two start, going five innings allowing zero earned runs (two unearned), on three hits. Lena Walter entered game two and threw four and a third innings allowing two earned runs (one unearned) on seven hits. She was tagged with a blown save due to the controversial play at home in the seventh that allowed Hutch to tie the game, but Walter still earned the win in game two, while Allyson Montgomery took home the first save of her collegiate career. 

The Grizzlies have a quick turnaround as they play host to Crowder College tomorrow at 1 and 3 

NOTES: Butler is 29-5 vs Hutch since 2004 and are 8-2 at Hutch since 2012…Hutch is now 3-1 at home this year and is 42-4 at home since 2021 with all four losses being to Butler…Game two's ten innings were the most innings the Grizzlies have played in a game since May 19th, 2016 when the Grizzlies defeated Florida Southwestern 5-4 in 15 innings at the 2016 National Tournament…Butler and Hutch have now split the last six matchups with Hutch winning three straight game ones and Butler winning three straight game twos...Allyson Montgomery has allowed no more than one hit in each of her last five appearances in the circle