Hosting Belle’s Lady Tigers last Tuesday night at Vienna City Park, Mick Byrd’s Eagle softball team found themselves between a rock and a hard place.

Trailing 4-0 entering the bottom of the fifth inning, Vienna scored a run in the fifth and four in the sixth for a come-from-behind 5-4 victory.

Scoreless after two innings, Belle got on the board on a two-out RBI single from Cheyenne Struemph that scored Gracie Rehmert for a 1-0 lead after three innings.

Belle went back to work in the top of the fourth starting with a leadoff single from Olivia Sanders.

Sanders and Susie Moman scored in the inning along with Denni Horstman on a Rehmert RBI single pushing the Lady Tiger lead to 4-0.

Jordyn Steffen singled and scored in the bottom of the fifth inning on an Alexi Struemph RBI ground out to get Vienna on the board.

In Vienna’s four-run bottom of the sixth inning, a two-RBI infield hit from Karissa Feeler led to Struemph driving her in with the eventual go-ahead run.

Steffen earned the win for Vienna allowing one earned run on four hits and two walks while striking out two Belle batters.

Rehmert took the tough-luck loss allowing five runs and striking out three. She also led the Lady Tigers with two hits, a walk and a run scored.

Steffen and Feeler both had two hits while combining for three runs batted in and a stolen base.

Struemph accounted for the other two RBIs. Kamryn Hayes also had a base hit and two stolen bases.

Two nights later on Thursday in Steelville, Vienna clinched an outright Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) title in softball defeating Steelville 22-0 in three innings.

Feeler had two hits and a game-high five runs batted in.

Marsie Messersmith and Alicia Long also added two hits and two RBIs each.

Jada Kleffner also doubled, stole two bases and drove in a pair of runs against the Lady Cardinals.

Gabby Wilkinson kicked in a double and three RBIs.

Sitting at 17-0, Vienna went into their annual tournament over the weekend looking for three more wins over Newburg, Laquey and Richland to reach a school-record mark of 20 victories.

Outscoring their three tournament opponents by a combined 48-1, Vienna went on to keep the tournament championship hardware in town Saturday.

Shutting out Newburg (15-0) and Laquey (23-0), Vienna nearly made it three shutouts for the tournament defeating Richland 10-1 in what turned out to be the championship game.

Vienna will end their regular season facing Iberia on the road tomorrow (Thursday) before hosting Richland on Friday, Oct. 5. Softball action both nights will begin at 5 p.m.

Butch Gehlert’s Belle Lady Tigers have bounced back from the tough loss at Vienna to win three of their last four games.

Playing road contests at St. James, New Haven and Dixon, Belle picked up a 10-6 victory at St. James and a 12-0 shutout of the Lady Shamrocks.

Kicking off the month of October Monday night, Belle dropped a 12-11 slug fest at Dixon before coming back last night (Tuesday) to sting Laquey’s Lady Hornets 14-4 in five innings behind four hits, two runs scored and two RBIs from Cheyenne Struemph.

Belle will end their regular season this weekend in the Rolla Softball Invitational at the Ber Juan Sports Complex and Rolla High School.

Gehlert’s Lady Tigers will open the tournament on Friday, Oct. 5 at high noon facing Willard on the Morgan Field.