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LaGrange had to dig deep to earn a 7-6 win over Trinity Christian in the team’s region opener. The Grangers rallied from an early deficit to deliver a clutch victory that required all seven innings.

With the game tied at 6-6 heading to the seventh and final inning, the game was calling out for a hero. That hero arrived, minus the cape, in the form of senior Hudson Wood, who hit a one-run double with two outs in the top of the seventh to put LaGrange out in front. It was her first hit of the game.

“You have to flush the previous at-bats and go up there,” Wood said. “It’s a new experience every time you go up to bat, so you have to flush everything by that came before.”

The Grangers would slam the door on the rally attempt from the Lions in the bottom of the inning. It came down to a bang-bang play at first base that resulted in an out as a Trinity Christian runner touched home base.

“It was no pressure after what I did in California,” freshman pitcher Dakota McDaniel said about getting the final out. McDaniel helped her travel ball team win a national championship in California last weekend.

The Lions opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the first before adding an additional run to their lead in the second, making it a 4-0 advantage.

LaGrange found an answer in the top of the third with four runs to tie the game. Abby McGill, one of the team’s 13 seniors, got the fun started with a one-run single. Carolyne Garcia, another of the seniors, kept up her hot start to the season with a two-run sacrifice fly. In a weird twist of fate, she was called out on an infield fly rule despite the fact that the ball was hit well into the outfield, one of many questionable umpire decisions on the evening.

Tatum Nation followed with a sacrifice fly to send McGill home and knot the game up at four runs apiece.

The Grangers were ready to pounce from there, scoring two runs in the top of the fifth inning to take their first lead of the game. Garcia came through again with a massive one-run double. An error later in the inning allowed Garcia to reach one and push LaGrange’s lead out to 6-4.

A poor error from the Grangers with two outs in the bottom of the fifth allowed a pair of Trinity Christian runs to reach home and tie the game.

Zoe Thompson started in the circle for the Grangers and pitched two innings before being replaced by freshman Dakota McDaniel, who made her varsity debut and pitched the final five innings. What a debut it was as she allowed just four hits and no earned runs on three strikeouts.

“It was exciting,” McDaniel said of making her debut. “The energy was high all game, so it was easy to build on that.”

Kimberly Reynolds, McGill, Siggers and Garcia all had two hits apiece for the Grangers while Nation, Wood, and Jasia Swanson all had one hit each.

LaGrange starts the season 2-0 overall and 1-0 in region play. The Grangers will be back on the road Thursday for a region matchup with Fayette County.

“We know how big this game was because we figure Trinity Christian would be one of the best teams in the region,” Wood said. “The energy stayed up all game and we were able to build on that.”