Paris went into its home tournament Saturday as the favorite, but it was not an easy road.

The undefeated Lady Coyotes were the No. 1 seed and had to come back to beat Community R-6 3-1 and then Lewis and Clark Conference foe Salisbury 8-7 to win their first home tournament since 1999. In the championship game, Reese Sutton went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two doubles, and Emma Ashenfelter was 2-for-3 with a RBI double.

Head coach Collin Huffman said Paris (15-0) didn’t even earn a trophy in 15 years until it finished third last year in what was its fourth trophy in 27 years at the time. The Lady Coyotes were the ones with the first-place trophy after overcoming all kinds of adversity, Huffman said. This week was busier because of Homecoming, and Huffman was personally occupied because the Paris graduate is celebrating his 25th class reunion this year. 

Paris at Paris Tournament Photo Gallery

“It’s hard to get everybody reeled in,” Huffman said. “I would have loved to have practice on Friday, but we had a Homecoming game on Friday.”

Paris defeated district foe South Shelby (1-12) for the second time with a 15-0 three-inning victory. Katie Cummins was 3-for-3 with five RBIs, including a three-RBI inside-the-park home run, and Ashenfelter went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and one triple. 

The Lady Coyotes then beat Community R-6 (9-16), which was the school that defeated them in the second round last year, after trailing 1-0 through four innings. Cummins hit a home run outside-the-park. Sutton pitched seven innings with six strikeouts and one unearned run on three hits and two walks to follow six strikeouts in three one-hit innings by Ava Crain against South Shelby.

After defeating Salisbury (7-8) again in a one-run game, Huffman said the girls recorded 12 hours at their field. Paris led most of the time in this game, but Salisbury tied it at 7 in the seventh inning to force Paris to win for the fourth time via walk-off. 

“How do you handle adversity?” Huffman said. “We saw some adversity tonight so you have to keep playing your game. Your toughest opponent is yourself. We played a lot of one-run games last year, too, and lost a lot of them. We’re not doing it this year.”

Sophia Crusha had a game-tying hit in the Community game and walked prior to Sutton driving a pitch into the outfield to win the game via a dropped ball. Crusha is one of the team’s seniors and said she feels “accomplished” that she was able to win the home tournament with her teammates, achieving a goal they prioritized among all of their lofty goals this season.

“I feel like we have been in a lot of situations that are stressful,” Crusha said. “We just keep calm and keep our emotions together, and we’re able to get it done.”

Huffman said he is happy to have Crusha back after she was unavailable for eight days with a foot injury. She has brought value to the leadoff spot, leading the team in on-base percentage and ranking second in runs after Saturday. 

“This is the first time I’ve played leadoff in one week,” Crusha said. “They do pretty well hitting me home.”

Crusha steps to the plate after Sylvee Graupman, who picked two hits in high-pressure situations in the sixth and seventh innings. Salisbury cut its deficit to 6-5 before Graupman led off the inning with a single that brought her to third base because of an error. She scored the important insurance run and singled an inning later.

“She is clutch as anybody is going to be clutch, but she’ll never claim to be,” Huffman said. “She always thinks she does a bad job, but she does a tremendous job all the time. That’s why she’s a captain this year — my little junior captain. She’s the little person on the field but probably has the biggest heart.”

Huffman is quick to give all the credit to his players. Paris won its tournament because of them, and he points to a moment in the seventh inning of the championship game. First baseman Gretchen Crusha had to be pinch hit for because of a sudden injury, and Layla Riechmann singled after being unexpectedly called upon.

“The first baseman got hit with a line drive, and I didn’t even know,” Huffman said. “Nobody called timeout. Umpires didn’t notice it, and her parents didn’t even notice it. I brought it a cold pinch hitter, and she came through clutch as the winning run. I tell them, ‘You guys make me look like a genius sometimes.’”