NICEVILLE — Crestview's Taylor Rolison was mowing down right-handed Niceville batter after right-handed Niceville batter, and Eagle coach Danny Hensley had a hunch.
Four and 1/3 innings had passed, and not a single one of Niceville’s hitters had managed to touch home.
So Hensley leaned on his gut, sending in lefty Kalee Polson to pinch hit for Rachel Gainer.
Polson delivered with a two-RBI double, sending Raven Bryant and Merideth Milam around, granting Niceville a 2-1 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Two batters later, Jaci Hodskins swatted a double of her own, knocking in Graysen Gladden, and Faith Ford would go on to close out the 3-1 Niceville win.
“Well, the left fielder was a little more towards center so I was really looking for an outside pitch and she pitched me inside so I just went with it,” said Polson, who only saw one at-bat.
“That kid can pitch, man,” Hensley said of Rolison. “She’s very good. She’d a warrior, she keeps them in ball games. She moves it in, moves it out, throws it up in the 60s.
“Not only does she have good stuff, but she’s a competitor.
“The righties were struggling on that curveball she throws down and away, seems like we were chasing, so I thought a lefty would get a better look. We had runners in scoring position, and I just had a gut feeling a lefty would give us a better chance of putting the ball in play.”
Three weeks ago, Hensley made no such prescient moves, and Rolison allowed just one run in a 2-1 Bulldog win, their first over Niceville in more than a decade.
Predictably, it didn’t sit well with the Eagles.
“We’ve wanted it for two weeks,” Ford said. “That’s what we’ve been waiting for.”
Polson pinch hitting in the fifth wasn’t Hensley’s only wise move of the night.
Per usual, he trotted out Savannah Foster as the starting pitcher, and she threw a solid four and 2/3 innings, allowing just one run, an RBI single from Alyssa McLaughlin in the fourth.
But, as Hensley noted, Foster was consistently working through 3-1 and 3-2 counts and hit two batters, not as in command of her pitches as he was comfortable with. So in went Ford, who normally appears in the sixth or seventh inning — she threw to just one batter in Niceville’s previous matchup with Crestview — to finish out the final two and 1/3.
And that move paid off as well; Ford struck out four and allowed just one hit in a scoreless effort.
“It’s relieving,” Ford said of avenging the earlier loss to Crestview. “It’s a relief, but we still have Tate (tonight) so we gotta go back out there again.”
“It was very sweet,” Hensley said. “We knew it was gonna be a pitching duel. If we play them again in the district tournament, there won’t be a lot of runs scored.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Niceville avenges loss to Crestview