By SPENCER BATES
ALLEGANY — With her team tied 2-2 with Eden in the fifth inning, Allegany-Limestone’s Kailey Truman stepped into the batter’s box.
The lone senior on the roster, in the final home game of her career, would wind up being the hero in an eventual 6-2 victory.
But not before some early obstacles.
The Gators had jumped out to a 2-0 lead in their Section 6 Class B Quarterfinal game against the Raiders, but over the course of the middle innings the advantage evaporated. A run apiece in the third and fifth frame — both coming with two outs on the board — cancelled out A-L’s lead.
Kailey Truman went the distance in the circle for A-L, but the run in the fifth inning that tied the affair back up brought head coach Kaelyn Arnold out of the dugout for a chat.
“She was just saying, ‘we’re good, relax, and everything will go the way it needs to go,’” Kailey Truman said.
Arnold’s words rang true and her ace immediately got back on track, slamming the door shut before any more damage could be done.
Truman would not give up another run the rest of the game and ultimately finished with nine Ks, surpassing the 500-career strikeout benchmark in the process.
“For her whole career up here, she’s been very resilient,” Arnold said. “She’s worked hard. She’s always here at the field by herself or with her sisters, always getting in extra work. We appreciate everything she’s been doing. I know she said she wasn’t gonna make it to 500 strikeouts, but I told her at the beginning of the season, ‘you’re gonna get there.’ She’s very confident with herself, which is great to see, and she’s always putting in extra work, and especially at the end, with bases loaded, she had a lot of resilience there. We thought about throwing our other pitcher in, and she was like, ‘no, I want this.’”
But Kailey Truman’s impact would extend far beyond the circle. After back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the fifth, one swing of the bat was all it would take for her to immediately undo the work Eden had done to get back into the game.
A rocket double, which sailed over the head of Eden’s center fielder, restored the Gators’ two-run advantage — runs that would end up being game-winning.
Kendall Truman provided the dagger later in the inning with a two-RBI double of her own, sealing the result.
“We stayed patient,” Arnold said of the late offense. “We were waiting for the pitch that we were looking for, and that really helped. I know we still left some runners out on base, which happens sometimes, but that’s the game of softball. We were resilient until the very end, and it showed on the scoreboard.”
Allegany-Limestone’s Kendall Truman (16) connects on a pitch against Eden. Truman went 1-for-2 with a run and two RBI for the Gators. (Spencer Bates)
This was far from the first time that Arnold had seen her team leave wins late this season. And while she would like to see some runs come across earlier in order to prevent any unnecessary stress, the resilience within her team keeps her believing that it is just a matter of time until the runs do come.
“It was fantastic,” Arnold said. “I mean, our goal is to try to score every inning, even if it’s one run, two runs, whatever we can do, that’s our goal. I know it doesn’t work all the time, but we were very resilient.”
For Kailey Truman, it would be hard to write a better ending to a high school playing career than the one she had against Eden. A crux of the A-L program for a number of years, she had nothing but positive things to say when reflecting on her tenure.
“It just means so much,” Kailey Truman said. “This team has always given me the opportunity to succeed, and I’m forever grateful for that.”
With the win, No. 3 seed Allegany-Limestone will face No. 2 seed Alden in the Class B Semifinals on May 26 at 5 p.m. at Alden.
AT ALLEGANY
Eden 001 010 0 R:2 H:5 E:0
Allegany-Limestone 020 040 X R:6 H:11 E:2
Eden: Osinski (1 SO, 3 BB), Dychlik (1 SO, 1 BB) and Koszelak
A-L: Ka. Truman (9 SO, 4 BB) and P. Truman
