COFFEYVILLE — Alex Hill found her groove Thursday afternoon. Iola High’s senior pitching ace pitched 12 innings, spanning two games, of scoreless softball. She was one hit away from back-to-back perfect games.
The Fillies decked host Coffeyville’s Field Kindley High Golden Tornado girls 6-0 in the opener of a Southeast Kansas League doubleheader. Coffeyville got a single in the fourth inning off Hill but nothing else.
Then came perfection.
Hill faced 15 batters in in a five-inning game. The line read: no runs, no hits, no walks, no hit batters, no errors, eight strikeouts.
Iola’s offense matched Hill with 15 runs — seven in the third inning and eight in the fifth.
“Alex was dominating all day. I wanted her to work on her drop-ball and change-up pitches in the first game or she may not have given up the one hit,” said Vince Coons, Fillies’ head coach.
Coons said the hit in the first game was a solid single by the Coffeyville batter. Hill struck out 16 of the 22 batters she faced in the first game.
It was Hill’s first perfect game of her high school career.
“Coffeyville has a very young team and Alex had good command of her pitches in both games,” Coons said.
In the first game, Iola scored a run in the second, added two in the third and put three more on the scoreboard in the fourth inning.
Brandi Preston, Leah Weir, Megan Cook, Hill and Lauren Toney had a single apiece for Iola.
“Their pitcher was a bit inconsistent and kept us off balance at the plate. Inconsistency in pitching leads to inconsistency in hitting.” Coons said.
“We got some dink hits and they made a lot of errors. Once we got runners on base, we put pressure on their defense and were able to score.”
Iola had 11 hits in the second game. Weir, who earned a move up in the batting order, went 2-for-3 with a single and a double. Molly Riebel and Lacy Sigg each had two singles.
Preston doubled. Hitting a single each were Lyndsi Faulhaber, Kylee McKarnin, Amanda Carr and Hill.
Coons said the Fillies need to continue to improve offensively. He said Weir is seeing the ball well at the plate which is why he moved her up to the No. 2 slot in the batting order.
Iola is 3-1 in SEK play and overall. The Fillies go to Chanute for two games Monday.
Hill throws perfect game in Fillies’ wins
