Fearless Freshman! English Valleys’ Addison Achenbach Hits Walk-Off Winner

NORTH ENGLISH—On May 28, the English Valleys Bears put on a show of home opener against Iowa Valley with an extra-innings walk-off from freshman Addison Achenbach.

The Bears found themselves in a 1-0 hole after two innings of play. The Bears knocked in three runs in the bottom of third with two RBIs from junior Taylor Mikesell and one RBI from senior Delaney Hall.

The Tigers fought back and tied the game at three apiece in the top of the sixth. They eventually took a lead in the top of the seventh with another run.

In the bottom of the seventh, freshman Aubrey Achenbach tallied a one-out single to put the tying run on base. She then stole second to get into scoring position. Senior Delaney Hall walked up to the plate after a strikeout as the final out. She blooped one into the outfield and scored Achenbach from second.

Hall described her thought process when stepping up the plate as, “Confidence. We know we are good hitters. We just have to do it. We just have to believe in ourselves and our teammates.”

Throughout the ups and downs of the game, Halls had a steady mentality of, “Trying to encourage my teammates. Everybody gets down on themselves, but everybody makes mistakes. We just gotta push through them all.”

English Valleys’ Head Coach Steve Hester spoke these ups and downs of the game with, “We gave them too many outs. They scored two runs on us by throwing the ball around. That is not usually the game we play. Once we calmed down, we played defense like we know how. I think our approaches at the plate have been great this year. We have been patient, even when we are down in the count, and that has been paying off.”

In the bottom of the eight, senior Ada Mews secured a walk to put the winning runner on first base. Fellow senior Imigyn Stratton laid down a beautiful bunt to advance to Mews to third base and reach base safely. Freshman Addison Achenbach stepped into the box with no outs and a chance to play the hero. She knocked one into the infield, and gave senior Ada Mews enough time to scamper home for the victory.

Achenbach spoke on the mentality she had heading into the batter’s box with, “Just have confidence up there. Things were going out way up to bat, so keep it going.” 

The Bears start their season off with four straight victories. Coach Hester spoke on this with, “Good. Really good. It was a nice come from behind win. I told the girls we don’t need any more of those. They have a little bit of confidence, and it is a really important week. We need to get as many wins as we can early on, and get better every day.”

The Bears sit at 4-0 and quickly turn around with another conference matchup at Keota on May 29.