Tippecanoe Valley’s Sydney Howard (2) slides in under Maci Irvine’s tag early in Monday’s game. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

BOURBON — Indiana Beach starts welcoming customers on May 26. Cedar Point begins spinning its turnstiles on May 6. Six Flags is a little more antsy and will have a “sneak preview” this coming weekend. But those dates were simply not good enough for the Tippecanoe Valley and Triton softball teams. The two teams took their respective fans on quite the roller coaster ride Monday night in a wild game between the rival schools. Triton erased a 9-0 Valley lead to score an 11-10 win in eight innings.

The Vikings had scored in each of the first three innings to build their comfortable lead. Triton’s dugout reflected its play through the first half of the game, no energy. The Trojans finally woke up in the bottom of the fourth to put some life back into the home side of the park. Nicole Sechrist brought home Hannah Woodard and Sara Stevens on a one-out double to make things 9-2. Valley looked to get those runs back in the fifth but bad base running led to an inning ending double play giving the Trojans a little more momentum.

Taytum Hargrave started the bottom of the fifth by reaching on an error which led to a two-run homer from Woodard. RBIs from Sechrist and Crystal Brown made the score 9-6 going into the sixth. All of the runs in the frame for Triton came with two outs on the board. Triton completed its rally in the sixth after Valley stranded a runner at third in the top half of the inning. Brown singled to bring the go-ahead run, giving the Trojans a 10-9 lead. Valley responded in the top of the seventh with an RBI from Alex Gomez that scored a pinch-running Taylor Czichilski.

Triton found itself with a golden opportunity in the bottom of the seventh as it had the bases loaded and no outs but a heads-up double play from the VIkings quickly changed the tone of the frame and extra innings would eventually be forced.

In the extra frame it was Maci Irvine that got to play the role of hero. Irvine, who finished the day 0-4, had a sac fly in the bottom of the eighth that scored Sechrist to give the Trojans the win and bring the crazy ride to a stop.

Triton head coach Steve McBride was asked bluntly after the game if there was any point where his team gave up hope when facing a 9-0 deficit. The always candid coach had a long pause before answering, “Well, it helped when we started having some success and then everyone kind of got into it.

Whytnie Miller did a fine job in relief for the Trojans Monday night.

“The key was when we brought Whytnie Miller into pitch, she kind of held things down for us after it was 9-0. She filled in that transition role for us tonight between Woodard and (Courtney) Jennings.”

Woodard started the game and pitched two innings before being relieved by Miller. The freshman held her own for three innings and recorded three strikeouts before Jennings came in to carry the team the rest of the way. Woodard had three RBIs and two runs scored for the Trojans. Brown led Triton with four RBIs and was 4-5 at the plate. Hargrave was 3-5 with two runs scored and three stolen bases.

Valley used a trio of pitchers as well as Sydney Howard got the start and struck out four in four and two-thirds innings of work. Junior Kayla Scott and freshman Ally Betten finished out the game for the Vikings.

Howard and Kirsten Yoder led Valley with three hits each. Howard and Mia Gunnels each had a pair of RBIs.

Valley head coach Daryl Shoemaker was proud of his team’s offensive performance, and rightfully so, but he also found plenty of areas for improvement.

“I told the girls that we’ve got a lot to work on,” Shoemaker said. “They’re young, It’s a really young and inexperienced team. It’s time to work and get better at little things. We’re happy with the way we hit. We scored in the first three inning and scored when we needed to late. I’m really satisfied with that side of it.”

Valley (0-2) travels to Winamac Thursday while Triton (2-1) travels to Knox Tuesday night.