WEST LAFAYETTE — Mallory Duell put her family in quite the Thursday dilemma.
The Harrison sophomore had the game of her season when the season was on the line Tuesday night during a 3-1 win over rival McCutcheon in the Class 4A, Sectional 7 softball semifinal.
The Raiders advanced to Thursday’s sectional title game against Kokomo.
Duell’s older sister Whitney plays for Trine University, where she’s a finalist for Division III Freshman of the Year. The Thunder are in the NCAA Division III softball championships.
The first game is 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Bloomington, Illinois, 30 minutes before Harrison’s sectional title tilt and a two-plus hour drive from West Lafayette.
“They’re all kind of freaking out because we play Thursday and she plays Thursday,” Mallory Duell said. “But we’re so supportive of each other. And I couldn’t have asked for a better family around me.”
For at least one night, the family will split alliances while maintaining a watchful eye on softball across state lines.
As far as Tuesday, it was a full family outing to see Harrison’s sophomore left fielder deliver game-winning plays at the plate and in the field.
Duell’s one-out single in the top of the first eventually led to her scoring the game’s first run on a double steal. She’d finish 3-for-3 with a double and two stolen bases.
Her defense was even more impressive.
Exactly six weeks after Harrison senior pitcher Bradi Odom took a perfect game against McCutcheon into the seventh inning, she nearly allowed a hit to the game’s second hitter Tuesday.
McCutcheon’s Emma Wykoff pulled a low liner down the left field line that appeared destined to dive deep into the outfield corner. Instead, Duell made a full extension diving catch before popping to her feet and celebrating while almost in a state of shock.
“The one thing I ask of our defense is just make the routine plays,” Harrison coach Kelsi Clark said. “If you make the routine plays, the exceptional plays come as a result of that.”
Four innings later, Duell would save her pitcher again.
Odom admittedly left a pitch too much over the plate and Kacie Nading tagged a shot that looked like it might find its way over the left-center field fence.
Duell instead tracked it down at the wall only for the ball to ricochet out of her glove back into the air before Duell spectacularly completed the catch.
“My heart stopped beating for a little bit,” Odom said. “It was intense. I made a mistake right there. I left it kind of fat and she took advantage of my mistake, what she’s supposed to do as a hitter.
“When I saw Mal catch it, I was like, oh my God, she caught it twice. It was a great catch and it was amazing to see. It really brought us back into the game with energy.”
Ashley Dunk added to the defensive gems with a stab on a hard grounder between shortstop and third base and in one motion fired to first where Shallenberger picked the short hop to get Harrison out of the sixth inning with a two-run lead.
Now Harrison, despite an uncharacteristic 9-12 season to date, is in familiar territory.
The Raiders, one year after being upset by Logansport 1-0 in the sectional championship, are one win away from their sixth title in the past seven IHSAA softball state tournaments.
“The best part of the postseason is that everybody’s record resets to 0-0,” Clark said. “After (Tuesday), we’re 1-0, but tomorrow that goes away. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night and that’s the beauty of this tournament. Everybody gets a shot.
“We don’t have to be a 20-win team entering the postseason. We just have to win the game in front of us and see how far that takes us.”
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Harrison softball advances to sectional championship against Kokomo