Good day for Elizabeth Davis as Genoa-Kingston tops Dixon

DIXON – Elizabeth Davis really likes playing in Dixon.

The Genoa-Kingston junior homered at Reynolds Field for the third straight season, and was also strong in the circle in the Cogs’ 7-1 victory over the Duchesses on Monday in a Big Northern Conference game.

“I don’t know what it is about this place,” Davis said. “My first year here really set me off, it was my freshman year and my first home run. Last year, same thing, I hit another one, and going into this game, I thought, ‘I can make it three.’ So going up to bat, I was looking for anything on that outside corner, right where she was painting it – and she gave it to me and I went for it.”

The home run capped a four-run sixth inning, just an inning after G-K had broken through on the scoreboard to take the lead.

The Cogs (2-5-1, 1-0 BNC) had a few chances to score early on, but Dixon senior Allie Abell allowed just one hit through the first four innings and pitched around three walks and an error in that span to strand five Cogs on base.

The Duchesses (3-2, 0-1 BNC) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Kiley Gaither singled with two outs, went to second on an overthrow back to the infield, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Addy Williams’ single to right.

G-K finally broke through in the top of the fifth. Liliana Stiles and Olivia Vasak led off with consecutive singles, then moved up a base on a wild pitch. Lily Provost followed with a two-run single to left, and took second on the throw to the plate. After a wild pitch, Brooklynn Ordlock added an RBI groundout for a 3-1 lead.

“A hundred percent, that got us going,” Davis said of Provost’s clutch single. “We’re a team that once someone starts hitting, we all follow. The way that she started that and got that big hit, it brought up the energy a lot and really helped everyone else continue hitting.”

The Duchesses loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, but a pop out on the infield ended the threat and left three runners stranded.

That turned out to be a big turning point, as Stiles drove in Kaylee Luepkes with a one-out single before Davis blasted her homer to left field in the next inning to push the Cogs’ lead to 7-1.

“If we could have that timely hit there, right after they had their inning to get going, that would’ve been huge,” Dixon coach Candi Rogers said. “But we couldn’t get it, and then they had another big inning right after it.

“Their energy was up and ours was not; you could see that we were flat, and that doesn’t help. When we’ve got three or four girls with their heads down, that rubs off on everybody around you. But we’re still learning, and we’ll use this lesson to keep improving.”

That was all Davis needed. She allowed four hits and three walks and hit a batter, but she struck out nine and allowed just five runners past first base in the game; she threw one out at the plate in the first inning, then erased another in the sixth by starting an inning-ending double play on a comebacker.

“We had to change around our defense a little bit to start because a girl got sick, so at first, it was a little rocky; we definitely took a few innings to get hitting,” Davis said. “But me and Ari [Rich, the catcher], we really started to find the way to paint the corners around the zone to keep it away from them enough where they weren’t making insane contact in gaps.”

Provost and Stiles each had two hits for the Cogs, and Vasak drew three walks to reach base four times. Davis took a pair of walks to reach base three times, as G-K drew as many walks (six) as they had strikeouts.

Williams had a pair of singles for the Duchesses, and Bailey Tegeler doubled, walked and stole a base. Abby Hicks and Breanna Tegeler each reached base twice in three plate appearances.