Greencastle gets first big win against Eminence 12-2

Greencastle freshman Madi Fauvergue was the winning pitcher against Eminence on Saturday, the Tiger Cubs' first victory of the season. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

EMINENCE -- A more relaxed Greencastle High School girls' softball team earned its first victory of the season Saturday at Eminence.

Led by senior Ellen Gobert with four hits and Courtney Adams with four RBI, the Tiger Cubs defeated Eminence 12-2 in six innings on the 10-run rule.

The young GHS team is 1-3 after the first week of action.

"We've told them all along this week, the strides they've made since Monday are just astounding." Greencastle coach Dave Keller said. "Monday and Tuesday (against North Putnam) we were trying to find ourselves. Thursday when we played Edgewood we took a huge step forward because we stayed in the ball game with Edgewood, which is a very good team.

"We knew it was only going to take a matter of time. This was a big step forward for us, putting the bat on the ball and taking care of the little things."

The Tiger Cubs put together 11 hits in their first win, led by Gorbert's 4-for-4 and four runs scored performance. Adams drove in four runs with two singles and Danielle Thomas belted two doubles and scored twice.

"(Gobert's) our senior. She's heady, she's smart, she knows the game and all I got to do is ask her to do something and she'll do it," Keller said. "She and Danielle Thomas at the top of the order set the tone for us. If they get on, good things will happen for us."

Freshman Madi Fauvergue, making her fourth start of the week, went 3 2/3 innings, giving up two runs and five hits to get the win. Adams relieved her in the fourth and pitched 2 1/3 innings of one-hit, shutout softball.

"We knew (Fauvergue's) time was probably limited for the weekend, but we wanted to start her because she has thrown well," Keller said. "Once we saw she was getting tired, we knew we had Courtney (Adams) in reserve and brought Courtney in and she finished the game."

Greencastle never trailed, scoring two runs in the first inning when Gobert dropped a bunt, stole second base and raced home when Kenlee Johnson smashed a double to the center-field fence. Johnson stole third and scored on Makenzi Myers' sacrifice fly.

The Tiger Cubs made it 4-0 in the third on a two-run single by Adams.

Everything went Greencastle's way through three innings, but Eminence scored twice in the fourth inning on hits by Katie Moore, Trinity Foster and Shelby Gore and a Greencastle error.

"The thing I was most proud of is when (Eminence closed the score) to 4-2, I wanted to see how we reacted," Keller said. "And the top half of the next inning we came back and put four (runs on the scoreboard) and put (the margin) back up to 8-2. They weren't about to let this one get away."

Thomas started Greencastle's four-run fifth inning with her second double of the day and scored when Gobert pushed a bunt through the infield. Myers walked and Gobert stole second and third bases and scored on a base hit by Adams. Myers came home on a wild pitch and Adams scored on a double by Fauvergue.

"We came ready for (Eminence) to be playing with us," Gobert said. "We focused on doing the little things right and I think that really helped us."

Greencastle added four more runs in the sixth and Adams struck out three batters in the bottom half of the inning to end the contest.

"We got all our nerves out this week," Gobert said. "(We faced) a little bit different pitcher today. We were really trying to sit back and have fun. We weren't nervous. We were looking for a fun day."

At Eminence
Greencastle.......202 044 -- 12 11 2 3
Eminence..........000 200 -- 2 6 1 7