One Ella of a game: Dean’s goes 4 for 4, delivers go-ahead double, pitches Argos past Elkhart Christian

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

UNION MILLS — It could be said that the Argos softball team had already come a long way just by showing up for their Class 1A, Sectional 51 quarterfinal against Elkhart Christian at South Central Monday.

They were not sure they were going to have a team at all. The experienced girls had to convince four girls who had never played softball before to give the sport a try.

The new-look Lady Dragons basked in the chance that they gave themselves, rallying for eight runs in the bottom of the sixth and then hanging on for a 15-12 win.

Argos improved to 3-19 and will meet Triton (4-16), who received a bye, in the semifinals.

Elkhart Christian, who committed 10 errors, finished 4-12-1.

Junior Ella Dean was one of those veteran players who went about recruiting new teammates,  and she wanted to be involved in perhaps the game’s biggest at-bat.

With the game tied 8-8 after Addi Denton’s RBI bloop single, it was Dean who roped a three-run double to deep left-center in the sixth that put Argos ahead for good. When she reached second, she leaped in celebration and then quickly noticed that there was an errant throw to the cutoff man and advanced to third on the error.

The double capped a 4 for 4 day for Dean. She also had three singles and a walk and scored three times.

Dean also pitched a complete game, allowing 11 hits but striking out eight.

“It was right down the middle, kind of a little outside,” Dean said of her double. “I love the outside pitches, so I saw it coming in. I had to wait on it. Wait, wait, wait, and I swung, and it just went. I think it was just the anxiety that I had, but I put that into the bat, and I powered through. … It was so exciting. Honestly, I don’t remember my feelings. I was just so overwhelmed with it, and it brought the tie up. We were winning 11-8. I was so excited.”

Katherine Horta-Suarez reached on an error to score Dean. Another error on a wild throw on Maddie Overmyer’s grounder put runners on second and third. Ava VanDerWeele’s RBI single made it 13-8.

Grace Thomas then singled to center, and when the ball spun past the center fielder for the fifth error of the inning, Overmyer and VanDerWeele raced home to make it 15-8.

The top of the seventh started innocently but became harrowing.

Dean retired two of the first three batters, and Elkhart Christian had a runner on second. 

The next five Lady Eagles reached base on a double, a hit-by-pitch and three singles.

Elkhart Christian brought the tying run to the plate, but Dean made a running catch on Kaylee Moran-Linn’s pop-up in front of the plate to end the game.

“The girls pulled it through,” Argos coach Phil Dean, who is also Ella Dean’s uncle, said. “They decided that they wanted to play one more game.”

VanDerWeele and Addi Denton each had two hits and two RBIs in support of Dean.

Every Argos starter had at least one hit except for Aubrie Bradley, and Bradley contributed a walk and a run scored.

“With the start of the season and with us not particularly having a team and then having three to four girls come out that have never, ever touched a ball before, and we spent the first few weeks teaching them how to put a glove on and throw the ball and hit and everything, overall, they did really well,” coach Dean said. “The older girls have been influential on actually explaining how to do things.” 

Ella Dean reflected on the team’s journey.

“The day before the season was supposed to start, we did not have a team,” she said. “So we went around our cafeteria and recruited girls that have never played softball and girls that haven’t played since sixth grade. So we brought them back, and they all stepped up, and we all did amazing today, and I’m so proud of all of them.”

The Lady Dragons scored four runs in the first and three more in the second to jump out to a 7-1 lead through two innings. Overmyer had an RBI single, and VanDerWeele had an RBI single and advanced to second when the ball was booted for an error by the leftfielder. Grace Thomas grounded to third base, and Overmyer was caught in a rundown but stayed in the rundown long enough and eventually scored when home plate was unoccupied. Denton’s RBI single made it 4-0.

Moran-Linn’s RBI single made it 4-1 in the top of the second, but Adelyn Lewark stole third and scored on a wild throw, and Thomas reached on a dropped fly ball in center field that allowed two more runs to score.

Elkhart Christian’s Elsie Gentz then shut down the Argos offense over the next three innings, and Argos committed three errors as part of a five-run Elkhart Christian third inning.

Parker Viront’s RBI infield single in the fourth tied, but Overmyer threw out Kiara Trovatore at the plate to end the inning and keep the game tied.

Charli Fick reached on a dropped pop-up with a runner at third and two outs in the fifth, giving Elkhart Christian their first lead at 8-7.

In the top of the sixth, Chessa Sickels reached second on a dropped fly ball in right with one out, but Ella Dean got Parker Viront on a grounder to second and Moran-Linn on a liner to second with Denton making a nice catch moving to her right.

VanDerWeele hit a grounder to short to start the bottom of the sixth. The throw was low and in the dirt, but Elkhart Christian first baseman Chessa Sickels made a nice dig for the out.

Thomas walked. Bradley hit a grounder to third. Elkhart Christian got a forceout at second, but the throw from the second baseman trying to turn the double play sailed over the Argos dugout and out of play.

The umpires awarded Bradley third base. Denton’s bloop single tied the game. No. 9 hitter Maci Ringer walked, and Lewark hit a hard grounder for a base hit just inside the first baseline.

The bases were loaded for Ella Dean in the biggest at-bat of her season.

“We’re not the same team as what we were last year,” coach Dean said. “We’re a rebuilding team. So we get through tomorrow, and then that to me is a David versus Goliath.”

Argos 15, Elkhart Christian 12

Elkhart Christian 015 110 4 – 12 11 10

Argos 430 008 X – 15 15 6

WP – Ella Dean (7 IP, 11 H, 12 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 8 K)

LP – Elsie Gentz (6 IP, 15 H, 15 R, 6 ER, 6 BB, 3 K)

2B – Charli Fick (ECA), Ella Dean (ARG)