South Putnam wins 1-0 in pitchers' duel

Saturday, April 30, 2011
South Putnam's Kaylin Yon pitched a complete game shutout against the Cougars Friday.

ROACHDALE -- The chaotic weather of the past week put pause to the home and home series between North Putnam and South Putnam before the first inning of Monday's game was even completed.

Skip forward to Friday, and the two squads started the second game before they ever finished the first.

Fortunately, the weather became a side comment after pitching gems from Kaylin Yon and Taylor Judy wowed the crowd. For the host Cougars, though, the end result didn't match the performance as the 2A No. 4 Eagles came away with a 1-0 win.

The Eagles scored that lonely run with the first two batters of the game. Emily Dabkowski singled and stole second before Jennifer Thompson smacked a single towards center field. The ball was mishandled, allowing Dabkowski to score and left Thompson on second.

Judy, however, slammed the door and would continue to do so for the following six innings, only allowing four total hits and a run with nine strikeouts.

Yon matched her pitch for pitch, however, completing the game and allowing a miserly two hits while fanning thirteen. The Eagle junior had a perfect game going into the fifth inning when Katie Welch finally broke the South Putnam defense for a single.

She would later be caught stealing second, a base that no Cougar runner would advance to and, after the first inning, neither would any Eagle.

North Putnam got their second hit of the evening in the final inning but stranded Lauren Green on second, unable to sting anything together against Yon.

Afterwards, Eagle head coach Chris Jones said the game had a much bigger feel than a regular conference game.

"This was a great, sectional type of atmosphere game. Low scoring with great pitching from both sides. We bound together a couple of hits and got that run on them early. Kaylin had a great performance with thirteen strikeouts. The defense played great behind her," Jones said.

"We did a nice job, as a team, when they put the ball in play, of getting them out. They also did a nice job against us. Taylor pitched a great game against us and when we hit the ball hard, they made some great plays out there," Jones added.

"It was a great test. It was a great conference game. It was North Putnam versus South Putnam. What do you expect? That's what you get."

Cougar coach Chris Hiland felt that the lack of rhythm during the week hurt both teams in their play.

"Both teams had a long time off and I think you could tell that, especially trying to get back into the groove of hitting. They didn't swing as well as they usually do, and we didn't swing as well as we normally do. The torrential downpours we had this week didn't help either squad," Hiland said.

"We're trying to get into a mode of being tougher hitters, but we weren't there today. Yon hit her spots very well. Taylor pitched a great game as well. It came down to a play in the first inning. That usually doesn't happen too often, but you'll have that from time to time with two good teams."

The schedules for both squads will be jam-packed with make-up contests, something that Hiland said might help his squad.

"It's going to be non-stop games from here on out. We have six games, one every day except for Thursday next week. It'll be nice for the girls to have a game and get ready for it. They struggled mentally this week because we'd have games get cancelled, arrive at places and games get cancelled," Hiland said.

"We were ready to go yesterday and that also got cancelled. The consistency of playing will be nice for us. It doesn't feel like we've really played softball this year. It's been games for a week, off a week, games for a week, off a week. With some consistency, we'll be fine," Hiland added.

It's no different for the Eagles, who will be raring to get going again after the long delays, Jones noted.

"We have a busy end to the year. We have to finish the game we started with North Putnam, but we don't have a date for that. Right now, we have five games scheduled next week. The week after we have Greencastle and the county tourney and finish up with Terre Haute North," Jones said.

"We have quite a few games left for us to get us prepared to be where we need to be come late May. [North] will be another great test when we play them. We have some good opponents left on our schedule that are going to help us get ready for the end of May, when it all counts."

At North Putnam

South Putnam 100 000 0 - 1 4 0

North Putnam 000 000 0 - 0 2 1

WP - Yon (5-0)

LP - Judy (3-2)