Apr 6, 2018 4 min read

Instead of walking to home plate for her second at-bat of the game in the fourth inning, Canon-McMillan High School senior shortstop MaKenzi Hollie found herself watching on the bench.

Big Macs softball coach Michele Moeller told freshman Madison Palivoda to grab a bat and pinch-hit for Hollie, a senior leader who struck out swinging in her first plate appearance.

Palivoda drove home Canon-McMillan’s first run of the game, which had eluded the Big Macs while failing to hit with runners in scoring position in two of the first three innings.

“I didn’t like the way her swing looked,” Moeller said about Hollie’s first plate appearance.

“I thought if she was a little angry, then she would come up to the plate a little differently. I wanted her to get mad. She wasn’t swinging the way I knew she could. She has power. We needed her to just get some of that confidence back.”

Whatever strings Moeller was attempting to pull, she chose the right ones.

Trailing 2-1 in the sixth inning, Hollie, who stayed at shortstop and re-entered the batting order, laced a line-drive single to tie the score, then she bounced a bases-clearing double off of the right-centerfield fence in the seventh as Canon-McMillan defeated Trinity, 6-4, in a non-section game at Trinity Middle School Friday afternoon.

“It was pretty frustrating,” Hollie said of getting lifted for a pinch-hitter. “No offense to (Madison) because she is a great player, but it is awful getting pulled when you expect to do so much better. I was thinking to myself that if I got another chance then I was giving it my all.”

After three runs scored on Hollie’s double, giving the Big Macs a comfortable 6-2 lead, she jumped on second base with her hands raised in the air. Hollie’s elation was matched by her teammates in the C-M dugout.

The Big Macs had squandered several chances to score early in the game, failing to take advantage of having multiple runners on base. All seven of the runners Canon-McMillan (1-0) stranded in the first six innings were either at second or third base. The Big Macs also made two outs trying to score runners from third base, including a powerful throw to home plate by Trinity right fielder Marin Williamson on Palivoda’s single to end the fourth inning and keep the Hillers in a one-run lead.

“We had very few outs and weren’t getting runs across the plate,” Moeller said. “From the beginning, we were on the ball. But it was frustrating in the early innings. It was huge to be down only 2-0 through the first few innings because everybody then started to look like they were getting comfortable.”

Trinity (5-2) took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a line-drive double from Sloan Altman that scored Marlaina Bozek and Cameron Meier. Both Altman and leadoff hitter Bailey Bell had two hits for the Hillers.

Over the next four innings, Big Macs starting pitcher Abi Michelucci found a rhythm in the circle and only allowed two batters to reach base safely. She pitched all seven innings.

“Offensively, we just need to learn how to adjust our hitting,” Gray said of the constant wind that knocked down the Hillers’ seven flyouts.

“We put a lot of easy fly balls to the outfield. I wish we were able to put more pressure (on Canon-McMillan) and hit more ground balls. We didn’t get timely hits we needed until the end.”

Trinity scored two runs in the seventh inning but fell short because of Hollie’s vital double in the top half of the inning.

“(MaKenzi) said to me at the end of the game that she was pretty mad,” Moeller said. “I told her that’s what I wanted to happen. The little bit of anger helped her. She is a senior. I knew she wasn’t going to put her tail between her legs. If I pull you out, then it should be a little bit of a motivator.”