Menu
Surber pitches perfect game in win
ROACHDALE--North Putnam's Sabrina Surber pitched her first career perfect game Friday night against the Crawfordville Athenians and her softball team won 10-0 in six innings.
"It felt good," NPHS coach Benny Ault said. "We're on a roll now. We had a win at Northmont the other night and no errors the other night and no errors tonight.
"That was Sabrina's first career perfect game. We were trying to get her to go around the world because she had a single, double and a triple, so we were trying to get a home run along with that perfect game."
"It felt good," Surber said. "It was my first one ever. Coach told me he was going to pull me in the third, but I told him I wanted to finish. So he let me."
Surber was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. She was 4-for-5 with a triple in the first inning, a single in the fourth, a double in the third and she also doubled in the bottom of the sixth inning to force the ten-run rule. She had five RBIs.
Had Surber hit a home run on that final at bat she would not only have pitched a rare perfect game, but she would have done something even more rare by hitting for the cycle too. Nonetheless, she was proud of her effort.
"I told the girls 'let's get it on,'" Ault said. "Let's get her a grand slam and end the night. It was a heck of a night for her."
"It would have been amazing," Surber said. "I knew we needed two runs, so I went for the fence, but if not then that was fine. It ended the game."
The Cougar defense was good as well. No errors were committed and in the top of the fifth inning when Surber's perfect game was on the line because of a long fly ball hit by Bridgette O'Neill, senior Jazzmin Laffin made a spectacular catch in left field.
"She's made those plays in practice," Ault said. "That's what we've talked about. I told the girls let's play perfect. Sabrina wants to pitch a no-hitter and we owed that to her because we've lost games that she's pitched well because of our errors. So I told them let's go out there and let's get this."
"We did well," Surber said. "It was a team effort. We just put it together and had fun."
Surber struck out 10 batters on the night and on the flip side the Cougars only struck out twice. They had a runner on base in every inning.
"Anytime you face Sabrina it's going to be hard," Ault said. "It's going to be hard to hit Sabrina. Our bats are getting better. We still got in a couple situations with bases loaded and didn't execute runs, which makes me a little frustrated as a coach, but hopefully they'll come."
North Putnam also took advantage of passed balls by the Athenians. In the first inning, senior Morgan Albers walked but because of a passed ball on her last pitch she made it to second. As the ball was thrown to second base it went over the defender's head and Albers rounded third and scored to put the Cougars up for good.
The Cougars will be in action again Monday night at home against county rival South Putnam. The game is set to start at 4:30 p.m
At North Putnam
Crawfordville 000 000 X--0
North Putnam 200 224 X--10
WP: Surber (NP) LP: O'Neill (CV)