Kassidy Smith, Samantha Buettner and Sarah Scrum all went deep Wednesday for the Collinsville High School softball team in an 11-9 victory over Waterloo Gibault, snapping the Kahoks four-game losing skid.

Alex Holten in action against Waterloo Gibault / Photo by Sherry Holten

After falling behind 1-0 after one inning, Collinsville’s offense poured on six runs over the next two innings. Two Hawks errors led to three Kahoks runs in the second. Buettner, Alex Holten and Emily Lautz scored for Collinsville (10-7). Lautz also had an RBI double.

Collinsville put another three runs on the scoreboard in the third. Audrey Allard led the inning off with a single and scored on Smith’s seventh home run of the year. Buettner followed Smith with a big fly of her own. It was the third round-tripper of the year for Buettner.

The Kahok bats went silent over the next four innings, allowing Gibault to claw back into the game. The Hawks scored a run in the third, two in the fourth, one in the fifth and one in the sixth to tie the game and force extra innings.

Each team scored a run in the eight, to set up a dramatic ninth.

With two runners on base in the top of inning, Scrum, who had been struggling recently, had a quick conference with CHS Head Coach Cindy Kolda.

“Coach, what do you want me to do?” Kolda said Scrum asked her.

“Just relax and have fun,” Kolda told her.

Scrum responded by slamming a three-run shot over the wall in left to give Collinsville the lead for good. It was Scrum’s first home run of the year. Holten later scored on a wild pitch to give the Kahoks an 11-7 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.

An error and a walk led to two Hawks’ runs in the ninth inning, before Collinsville held defensively.

Despite the nice weather, the game was sloppy defensively. CHS committed five errors and Gibault six.

“The game wasn’t very pretty, but, at the end, we finally got the win and we got off our little losing streak,” Kolda said.

Some of the Kahok players took on more of a leadership role for the game, Kolda said.

“We had a couple of leaders stand out tonight, and call timeout and make the team get together and start talking about the things they needed to do,” Kolda said.

Smith and Buettner had three hits apiece to fuel the Kahoks 13 hit attack. Smith also drove in two runs, to give her a team-high 24 on the season.

Collinsville next will host Belleville West at 4:30 Wednesday at the Collinsville Jaycee Sports Complex.