Lutheran South Wins Walkoff Thriller Over Affton, Headed to Championship

When the girls softball season began in August, the plan at Lutheran South was to have separate varsity and junior varsity teams this season.

Coach Linda McQueen wanted to have a varsity unit made up of mostly juniors and seniors, and a JV team consisting mostly of freshmen and sophomores.

One player McQueen expected to play on JV was sophomore infielder Leigh Wayman, a talented player who figured to come off the bench this year, because there were older girls at her position.

But in the biggest game of the year and biggest moment of the year, it was Wayman who was in the lineup, and she found herself at the plate with the bases loaded and the game tied in the bottom of the seventh inning.

And the 5-foot-6-inch dynamo delivered, smacking a base hit through the infield that drove in senior teammate Peyton Downey with the game-winning run. The hit rallied Lutheran South back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Affton 4-3 in a Class 3 District 3 semifinal game at Lutheran South Athletic Complex.

“I’m just so proud of her,” McQueen said, after her Lancers celebrated a wild comeback win. “She hasn’t gotten to play a whole lot, but she just practices so hard and has improved her hitting so much. It shows a testament to her to keep working hard in the cages, even though she was hardly getting any playing time on the field.”

The win for Lutheran South pushed its overall record to 12-9 this season and gave the team a berth in the Class 3 District 3 championship game Friday evening at home against top-seeded Bishop DuBourg, which also advanced on Thursday, thanks to an 11-1 win over St. Elizabeth’s Academy.

“I don’t know much about DuBourg. We didn’t play them at all this year,” McQueen said. “I know they’re a good team, and they have a really good pitcher. So we’ll just come out and give it our best shot.”

Early on Thursday, it seemed like Lutheran South might not have a shot.

The Lancers fell behind 3-0 to Affton in just two innings, and the Cougars were cruising with standout junior Amber Sinamon doing the job at the plate and in the pitcher’s circle.

But in the top of the second inning, after registering a hit and a run scored on offense and pitching a scoreless first for the Affton defense, Sinamon suddenly went down with a freak knee injury that likely occurred as she rounded first base.

Whatever happened on the play, which few saw, Sinamon was done for the day, and Affton had lost its best hitter and top pitcher.

“That’s just been our year,” Affton coach Erica Meyer said. “We’ve just had injury after injury all year. And it’s been a rough year, but we just felt like we were getting it together, and then our pitcher goes down in the (second) inning.”

With Sinamon out, Affton had to turn to freshman Jordan Thomure, a sensational hitting prospect, who hadn’t pitched since fifth grade.

And try as she might, Thomure just couldn’t hold off the fearsome Lutheran South lineup.

“You could see her hands just shaking, she was so nervous,” Meyer said. “But we didn’t have anybody else. I’m just so proud of her and this team for how hard they fought.”

Affton built its lead with two runs in the first and a single run in the second, but couldn’t add to it, as Lutheran South’s Brooke Tiehes held the Cougars scoreless the rest of the day.

The junior lefthander also had two hits for the Lancers, and scored the game-tying run on a hit by teammate Jennifer Schaper in the fifth.

All that early drama only set the stage for an exhilirating final inning.

Affton had a scoring chance in its half of the final frame, as junior Mallory Papert led off with a double. But she was stranded at third as her teammates couldn’t get her in.

In the seventh, Lutheran South loaded the bases with nobody out, leaving almost no room for error for Thomure and the Cougars.

And Wayman finally closed the door with the single that won the game.

“Once it was bases loaded, we were just hoping to get lucky and get out of it,” Meyer said. “But once that ball got through, that was it. Just got to give credit to them for coming back.”

Affton finished its year with an 8-17 record, but were still the undefeated champions of the Suburban East Conference in 2011.

First pitch for Friday’s district championship game between Lutheran South and DuBourg is set for 4:30 p.m. on the varsity field at the Lutheran South Athletic Complex.