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Cougars win county championship
ROACHDALE--Two runs each in the second and fourth innings was enough to lift the North Putnam Cougars softball team over the visiting Cloverdale Clovers in the Putnam County Championship Thursday, 4-2. This comes after the Clovers recently secured the West Central Conference championship.
Senior pitcher Sabrina Surber recorded 13 strikeouts for the Cougars in a complete game including striking out the first three batters of the game. Sophomore pitcher Lauren Meek of the Clovers also had a 1-2-3 inning herself to start the game.
"I think the defense did a great job," Cougar coach Benny Ault said. "We got some earlier outs, but I was worried there in the seventh. We had a couple little errors that in the past would have killed us. They did score two runs on us because of those errors, but they weren't game ruining errors and that's all that counts."
In the bottom of the second inning freshman Mia Runnells led off the batting sequence and with a 1-2 count she smacked the ball into right field that allowed her to move all the way to third. Junior Lauren Johnston followed up in the order and she lifted the ball over right fielder Christa Asbury's head and dropped, allowing Runnells to score and her making it to third as well.
The very next pitch by Meek went past the Clover catcher and Johnston scored.
"We hit good," Ault said. "Like I told them it's one inning at a time. You win each inning and you're going to win the game."
A very generous strike zone allowed Surber to work with her pitches and make Clover batters guess. The Clovers only had three base runners in the first four innings and all three got on base with two outs. Nine of Surber's strikeouts were recorded in those innings.
North Putnam added to its lead in the fourth inning. Johnston walked with one out and she was moved to second via a Claire Sims sacrifice bunt. TyeAnn Strow then hit a fly ball single to center field that allowed Johnston to score and on a throw to home plate Strow advanced to second. Strow was pinch run for by Chelsea Cox and she stole third base.
Still in the fourth inning but with two outs, junior Reilly Tucker reached on a fielding error by Clover first basemen Kimmy Winders and the very next batter Sierra Spencer reached on a fielding error by third basemen Jessica Winders to allow Cox to score.
With a four-run deficit the Clovers made a run in the top half of the fifth inning. Senior Maddy Smith singled with one out and Meek followed up being hit by a pitch. The next batter Jessica Winders loaded the bases with one out because a walk.
Surber got herself out of the inning by striking out the next batter, Hannah Long, and got junior Kelsey Helterbrand to fly out to deep left field. Helterbrand's fly out was only a few feet from tying up the game.
After another 1-2-3 inning pitched by Meek, the Clovers went down the same way in the top of the sixth.
Meek went through the bottom of the sixth inning undamaged and allowed the same batting lineup that got the bases loaded in the fifth inning to start the seventh
With one out Smith singled and then Meek was hit by a pitch. Jessica Winders nearly replicated the fifth inning but instead of walking, she too was hit by a pitch. Long struck struck out with the next at bat and brought up Helterbrand with two outs.
Helterbrand worked the count before smacking the ball into left field for a single that scored both Smith and Meek.
With two outs another big power hitter Kimmy Winders came up to the plate. She was 0-for-3 batting up to this point and she had momentum on her side. After falling in the count she struck out to end the game.
"We've learned from the mistakes in the past," Ault said. "Learning from mistakes makes a good team. I think we're going on a five or six game winning streak here and going into sectionals that's what you want."
The Cougars had a big night defensively not committing a single error. Surber allowed her team to field cleanly and the only real threat would have been Helterbrand's long ball that was caught in deep left field by senior Jazzmin Laffin.
At the end of the day it was the Cougars who hoisted the county trophy after losing it to Cloverdale in last year's county tournament. This also comes after the Clovers stole a game at North Putnam earlier in the year when the Cougars were ahead going into the seventh inning.
"I've been telling them it's been a magical season for us," Ault said. "We play a lot of games. I think we've played two more games than everyone in the county. It's been a rough schedule. I told the girls that Cloverdale is a team that we have to go through. Credit to them, they won the conference. I'm proud of them for that. They're fighters. We knew that coming in and that we'd have to fight every inning."
Sectionals start for both of these teams with the first games being played on Memorial Day this coming Monday. The records will all be stripped and a single loss will end each team's run. Cloverdale will play in the first game at 10 a.m. against the Monrovia Bulldogs and the Cougars will follow up against Covenant Christian at 2 p.m. These games are played in the Cascade sectional.
"We got a good draw in sectionals," Ault said. "We were very fortunate. We'll just have to go in there and keep playing the way we're playing and let the cards lay where they lay."
At North Putnam
Cloverdale 000 000 2--2
North Putnam 020 200 X--4
WP: Surber (NP), LP: Meek (C)