Hazelwood West Wildcats Give Up Walk-Off Win to DeSoto in Season Opener

BALLWIN – Sometimes softball isn’t a fair game.

That point was proven on Monday, when the softball team met up with De Soto High in the first round of the Parkway Tournament at the Ballwin Athletic Association.

West High sophomore Alex Linck, an all-Suburban North Conference player last year, gave a fantastic performance in the 2011 season opener.

She had two key hits, scored a run and had two RBIs, in what seemed like a certain Wildcat win.

Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell that to the De Soto team, which despite fielding a team full of freshman, rallied back from 6-0 and 7-6 deficits. De Soto scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh off Linck, who’d come in as a relief pitcher, to hand the Wildcats an 8-7 walk-off loss in the first game of the new high school season.

“It was an exciting high school game,” West High head coach Jack Scanio said. “I was telling the girls, it was almost like a tale of two games.

"We took a six-nothing lead. Then we gave them some extra outs that let them back in the game. Then they came back to beat us.”

DeSoto’s Allie Greenlee, a junior first baseman, knocked in the game-winning runs with a bases-loaded smash to right that scored twin freshmen Courtney Krodinger and Brittany Krodinger, after they led off the inning with hard-hit singles. Linck served those as well.

“The problem was she faced some pretty good hitters there,” Scanio said. “Each one of those balls was hit hard. After the first two, we brought the infield in to try to get out of it, and that kind of opened up some room for that last (hit).”

That final inning was an unfortunate turn for West and especially Linck, who had played so well throughout the night.

It was her RBI triple that got West on the board and helped spark a four-run rally in the fourth inning that gave the Wildcats an early lead.

Then an inning later, Linck helped cap another two-run outburst, with a single up the middle that made the score 6-0.

“It’s too bad,” Scanio said. “She had a good game. She swung the bat well. She got us out of a jam earlier. But you have to give credit to (De Soto). They won the game.”

The late-inning heroics also stole the glory away from West’s Roxanne Dennis, who came into the game late, but delivered an RBI triple in the top of the sixth that gave the Wildcats the lead after De Soto rallied to tie.

“I was happy for Roxanne,” Scanio said. “She’s been on the (disabled list) for a while. It was good to see her do that.”

De Soto freshman Brittany Canada got the win for the Dragons, after coming into the game in the fifth inning, to relieve starter Courtney Krodinger.

Canada struck out four batters in two-plus innings of work. This included a strikeout of West rightfielder Tricia Heffner to get out of a jam in the top of the seventh. That kept the score 7-6, and set up Greenlee’s heroics at the end.

The loss means West was sent to the tournament’s loser bracket, where it will face Parkway Central Tuesday at 6 p.m.

The winner of that contest will advance on in the tournament, while the loser will be eliminated.

West’s first regular season game is scheduled for Friday, when the Wildcats will host archrival Hazelwood Central High at 4 p.m.