South Putnam moves to 17-0

South Putnam's softball squad ran its record to 17-0 Wednesday night after knocking off former-WCC foe Speedway 10-0 in five innings.

Sparkplug starting pitcher Mikaela Etcheyson could not find any control of the ball in the first inning, walking five Eagle hitters before being pulled with only one out recorded in the bottom of the first.

To that point, the hosts had simply let the freshman pitch herself into holes, scoring runs on a Jenny Thompson double and forced runs across when Mattie Varvel and MaKenzie Trisler were walked with the bases loaded.

Junior Laura Aust fared little better, giving up a sacrifice fly to Janet Crafton and a run scoring single from Brooke Cundiff before watching catcher Kati Gregory throw away a ball for a run and Emily Dabkowski single in the seventh run of the inning.

The Eagles added one run each in three of the remaining four innings, scoring in the second on a Trisler single, adding a run in the third on a Thompson triple and closing the game on a Dabkowski rocket off of Aust that went into the outfield.

Kaylin Yon, meanwhile, mowed through the Sparkplug line-up, recording nine strikeouts in four innings while not giving up a hit in the process.

Freshman Ashlee Gibson pitched in the fifth inning and, although giving up both of Speedway's hits, finished off the Sparkplug attack by inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the fifth.

South Putnam head coach Chris Jones said that the squad was willing to wait out the Sparkplug pitchers.

"I think we were patient. She was struggling with throwing the ball across the plate for strikes. We were patient, waited for our pitches and they weren't coming before she had thrown four balls," Jones said.

"We were disciplined late on, putting the ball in play and getting runs when we could. We were still pretty patient. Sometimes we hit it to them and they made plays, sometimes we hit some good balls, advance people and score runs."

Jones added that the defense did what it needed to do when called in to play.

"Kaylin did a great job in the four innings she pitched. When the defense did get action, they were able to make plays. They got some hits on Ashlee, but she got them to hit it to the defense and they took care of things from there," Jones said.

Jones added that Thursday's game would be a test of the squad's fitness levels after the Wednesday game was played in the mid-80s.

"I want to see how mentally tough we are and what kind of condition we're in. I'll be interested to see where we are where when we travel to West Vigo and try to take care of business again Thursday night."

At South Putnam

Speedway 000 00 -- 0 2 1

South Putnam 711 01 -- 10 11 1

WP -- Yon (6-0)

LP -- Etcheyson (4-5)

3B -- Thompson

2B -- Thompson, Dabkowski, Crafton

Next game -- South Putnam travels to West Vigo Thursday night.