Eagle Point pushes Crater to the limit but can’t deny comeback effort

Published 1:40 pm Saturday, May 10, 2025

By KRIS HENRY / Rogue Valley Times

No. 5-ranked Comets score walk-off win in opener, complete sweep of No. 7 Eagles with dominant Game 2

If Crater was going to vault into the lead atop the Midwestern League softball standings, Eagle Point certainly was going to make the Comets earn it Friday evening in Central Point.

No strangers to big MWL wins themselves, the Eagles were actually the ones who made it possible for Crater to have a shot at first place when they took two of the three meetings with third-ranked Thurston two weeks ago.

Faced with a tremendous challenge in the opening game of a doubleheader Friday, the Comets were able to answer the call at every turn to squeeze out a vital 6-5 walk-off win over Eagle Point after Taylor Ryan brought home Danika Brackett.

The late momentum swing turned the pendulum for each team in Game 2, as Crater used a late surge to earn a 10-0, six-inning triumph for a series sweep that put the Comets a half-game ahead of Thurston with only two MWL series left in the regular season.

Eagle Point junior Brylee Leonardo delivers a strike against Crater in Central Point Friday. (Andy Atkinson / for the Rogue Valley Times)

“The momentum you can have as a team when things are going well at the plate or defensively when you make big plays can be huge,” said Crater head coach Chris Arnold, whose team is No. 5 in the Class 5A coaches poll. “In that first game, pulling that out at the end — and the ability to score in five of the seven innings — was helpful going into that second game.”

The Comets (13-8, 10-2 MWL) stormed to a 12-1 win Tuesday to open the pivotal series, then braced for an anticipated battle back by seventh-ranked Eagle Point (11-9, 8-4) on Friday.

“Eagle Point is a strong team and they’re well-coached, and they’re multi-faceted,” noted Arnold. “With the Eagle Point teams, (head coach John White) does a tremendous job teaching the girls how to hit and (assistant coach Mike Trotter) does a great job working with the pitchers.”

In the opening game, both of those factors seemed to lean ever so slightly EP’s way as junior Brylee Leonardo did her level best to keep Crater from gaining much offensive momentum.

“Brylee Leonardo is a quality pitcher and she’s gotten them where they are today,” said Arnold. “We knew that despite our success in that Tuesday game, that she’d come back with a sharper focus and she did just that.”

“She threw both ends of the doubleheader, which is pretty rare anymore, so it was a gritty performance by her,” he added. “She had good stuff tonight, especially in that first game before she was running out of gas there in the second game.”

Leonardo held Crater to single runs in the second and third innings in Game 1, then was the beneficiary of a four-run outburst by the Eagles in the fourth inning to build a 4-2 advantage.

Eagle Point junior Sarah Estes slides in safe for a fourth-inning run against Cater in Central Point Friday. (Andy Atkinson / for the Rogue Valley Times)

A leadoff walk drawn by Sarah Estes followed by consecutive singles from Kady Lindstrom, Kady Ledbetter and Allison Martin put EP in prime position, and Lilli Holcomb and Naomi Jackson later added singles of their own. In all, half of the Eagles’ 10 hits against Crater sophomore Allyson Nottingham came in the fourth inning.

But as Crater has made a point of doing all season, the Comets wasted little time to answer with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth inning behind a two-out triple from Espn Ostroskie and RBI double from Logan Floyd.

The Comets regained the lead in the fifth on a two-run home run by Khloe Cochran.

“We talk about those things in terms of answering back and what that means and how that can help a team, and also scoring with two outs,” said Arnold. “Those things are kind of the mental edges in the game that can make a real difference. It speaks to the mental toughness that a team has, I think.”

Undaunted, Eagle Point battled back to tie the game at 5-all in the sixth inning when Ledbetter supplied a leadoff single and later scored on a two-out single by Holcomb.

The Eagles missed a chance to take a lead in the seventh as Estes poked a one-out infield single and then moved to third following an error on a ball put in play by Lindstrom. Ledbetter then sent a grounder up the middle that was snared by the shortstop Brackett, who turned an unassisted double play to end the threat.

Crater shortstop Danika Brackett turns an unassisted double play in the seventh inning against Eagle Point Friday. (Andy Atkinson / for the Rogue Valley Times)

In the bottom of the seventh, Brackett built on that momentum with a solid single to right field and then stole second base, with a wayward throw allowing her to also advance to third base. With Brackett eager to race home, Ryan was able to put the ball on the ground to shortstop Madi Dean, whose throw home was not in time to cut down the winning run.

“Taylor’s that kind of a person,” Arnold said of the clutch final swing. “In that situation, knowing that was the go-ahead or winning run there, Taylor was going to get a bat on a ball. I think everybody in the dugout knew that she was the one we wanted up, and knew that was going to happen. They also knew Danika was going to go, so we came up with a good spot in the order there in the bottom of the seventh.”

In Game 2, Abbey Canfield limited Eagle Point to four hits with three walks and three strikeouts, and got plenty of cushion after an error allowed two runs to score in the third and Crater helped close the door with a combined seven runs over the fifth and sixth innings. A two-run home run by Ady Thayer highlighted the fifth inning, and Amanda Hammer added another two-run homer in the sixth.

Cochran combined to go 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs in the twin bill, while Ostroskie was 3-for-6 with one run and two RBIs, Hammer went 3-for-7 with two runs and two RBIs and Brackett was 3-for-7 with three runs.

“I thought this series with Eagle Point was probably the most disciplined we’ve been so far this year, which is good and we want to continue to build on that because that’s an indicator of success at the plate,” said Arnold.

Crater’s Khloe Cochran celebrates hitting a fifth-inning home run against Eagle Point in Game 1 of Friday’s doubleheader. (Andy Atkinson / for the Rogue Valley Times)

Crater moved into the No. 2 spot in the Class 5A state power rankings with the sweep of No. 10 Eagle Point, and Thurston stands third overall.

“We try as best as we can at this time of the season to take the focus off of rankings,” said Arnold, whose team has six MWL games left against Ashland and Springfield. “Certainly, we’re playing for the (state) championship, and if you win a conference championship, that’s a goal, I think, every team has. That’s one notch before you get into the postseason, but we try to really magnify the goal of just getting better and improving every single game and every single practice.”

Reach sports editor Kris Henry at kris.henry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035

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