Morris softball coach Jen Bamonte received a pesky notification before Friday’s Interstate 8 Conference game at Ottawa.

“I woke up this morning to MaxPreps notifying me that we had only won one of our last 10 games against Ottawa,” Bamonte said with a tongue in cheek smile. ‘I was like ‘Thanks for the reminder.’”

Ignoring the streak, the Warriors scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to earn a come from behind 6-4 victory over the Pirates.

Morris, now winner of seven straight games, improved to 26-6, while Ottawa fell to 19-9. Both squads finished tied for second in I-8 play with 6-4 marks.

“Our conference is ridiculously good,” Bamonte said. “Just last week [Kaneland coach] Mike [Kuefler], [Ottawa coach] Adam [Lewis], [Sycamore coach] Jill [Carpenter], [La Salle-Peru coach] Randy [Huebbe] and I were texting back and forth about the fact we had teams ranked [in Class 3A by the Illinois Coaches Association] No. 2, No. 6, No. 7, No. 8 and No. 11. That’s amazing, something to be proud of, and why every conference game is a battle like it was here today. If playing in the conference doesn’t get you prepped for the postseason I don’t know what does.”

Morris grabbed the lead in the second inning. Alyssa Jepson and Mylie Hughes reached on consecutive one-out infield hits off Ottawa pitcher Addie Russell. Ella Urbasek then followed by blasting a three-run homer over the left field fence.

“With Addie, you never really know how she’s going to pitch you,” Urbasek said. “The one thing you can’t do is start guessing, she’ll get you for sure if you do that.

“I got down 1-2, but with runners on, I just really wanted to do something positive. I got a pitch low and inside, which I feel is my sweet spot, and I was able to get the bat to the ball. It was an amazing feeling and very exciting.”

Ottawa responded in the third by scoring four times to take the lead. Teagan Darif reached on an infield single against Morris pitcher Mylie Hughes and came around to score when lefty Piper Lewis hammered a 1-2 pitch for an opposite field homer to left. Bobbi Snook then doubled and scored on a single by Rylee Harsted. Harsted touched home plate after a double by Aubrey Sullivan.

“Teams will just not pitch her inside, so she’s just staying on the ball and hitting the ball hard the other way,” Adam Lewis said. “She’s done a great job all season of thinking left-center gap and not trying to do something that can’t be done with a pitch away. That’s exactly the approach she had on the home run.”

In the top of the seventh, Ava Petersen and Urbasek reached on infield base hits and both scored on Halie Olson’s triple to center to give the visitors the lead. Aubrey McConnell then scored Olson with a sacrifice fly to left.

Harsted and Sullivan led off the bottom of the inning with hits and moved up a base on a groundout. But from there Hughes (7 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K) struck out the final two batters.

“Mylie is Mylie,” Bamonte said. “She is just such a great kid. She gave up the four in that one inning, but then really locked in the final four innings. She kept it a one-run game and gave us a chance to do what we did in the seventh.”

Russell also went the distance, allowing nine hits, six earned runs with one walk and five strikeouts.

“We left seven runners on base, six in scoring position, in the final three innings,” Adam Lewis said. “We just weren’t able to get that next hit in those late situations today. With just a one-run lead, it still keeps a lot of options, like bunting and stealing, on the table for your opponent.

“Addie pitched pretty well. The stats say she gave up nine hits, but all but the homer and triple were soft, spinning contact hits. A few of those we just weren’t as aggressive going after them as we should have been.”

Both sides are back in action at 10 a.m. on Saturday as Morris hosts Coal City, while Ottawa hosts Normal U-High for the first game of a doubleheader.