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Eagle Valley softball rallies past Palisade

Junior Cody Osteen sends one in for a strike against the Bulldogs. Eagle Valley had a rough start, but the Devils chipped away at Palisade's early lead to end the season with a win, 15-14.
Charles Townsend | Special to the Daily |

GYPSUM — And that would be finishing with a bang, people.

Lexi Valdez had a walk-off hit in the bottom of the seventh against Palisade as Eagle Valley softball stormed all the way back from a 12-2 deficit for a 15-14 win on Thursday at the Gypsum Sports Complex.

And, yeah, the Devils stormed the field just like they won the World Series.



After a 1-18 season in 2013, the Devils finished the year with a 5-14 record and, more impressively, were 3-3 in the 4A Slope. This was also softball’s first win over Palisade since 2006.

“There is absolutely no other way we’d rather go out,” Devils skipper Katie Hirschfelder said. “We practiced really hard. Our girls were prepared. Defensively, we made some mistakes. But our offense picked it up. The offense had their best game of the year.”

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People will remember the comeback, but pitcher Cody Osteen, despite some leaky defense, closed the lid on Palisade’s offense late, recording six strikeouts.

In the bottom of the third, down 12-2, the Devils put up a three spot on a Hannah Laisure RBI, which was followed by five straight hits.

Eagle Valley closed to 12-8 with three more as Regan Bossow, Valdez and Osteen all scored. The Devils put up three more in the fifth, but Palisade tacked on two runs in the top of the sixth.

Bossow, Allie Sands, Nicole Mathews and Kelsey Baldwin all had hits to start the final frame. With Bossow in, Sands and Mathews scored on wild pitches. With Baldwin on third, Valdez knocked her home, and the celebration was on.

While the Devils have made great progress this fall, they intend to keep working to build the program.

“We’re going to work in the weight room and do some conditioning,” Hirschfelder said. “We bought some indoor equipment and we’re going to work on our defense.”

Natalie Messerich, Morgan Genelin, Katie Laidman and Laisure are softball’s Class of 2015.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.


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