Eagles get back to work with win over Eels

South Putnam junior Brooke Cundiff makes a play on a groundball from her second baseman position against Clay City on Tuesday. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

Class 2A No. 10 South Putnam had sat for over a week, waiting for a chance to get back out on the diamond and did so Tuesday night against Class A No. 10 Clay City.

The Eagles, last seen hammering North Putnam, strung enough hits together at the right times and kept the Eels restricted to a solitary hit in a 7-1 win.

For South Putnam head coach Chris Jones, just playing was a victory in itself.

"It was nice to get a game in since we had not played for a while," Jones said. "You could tell we had not played for a while, but overall we did a nice job.

"It's good to see us in live action, getting balls hit to us from live pitching and getting things going again. It's also nice to have the weather to do that."

The hosts recorded all 21 outs in the infield and, with only three strikeouts from Ashlee Gibson, relied on a solid defense to grind out the result.

Adding to the degree of difficulty was that the Eagles did it without third baseman Jenna Jones in the field.

"Considering we found out yesterday that Jenna would not be able to play in the field for us tonight, I think did well tonight," Jones said.

"You have to commend Mattie Varvel. She's stepped up in whatever ways she's needed to for us. When Kelsey Whitaker was hurt early in the year, she went from first base to left field.

"Yesterday, with Jenna out, we said that we needed her to play third base and she stepped up, practiced it yesterday and made some great plays."

Gibson in particular shined defensively, recording seven assists and Jones said the effort fed the rest of the team.

"We've talked and we've said to Ashlee, 'Field what you can field and we'll get the rest of them,' and she did a really good job of that," Jones said. "It cannot do anything but feed the other girls with confidence.

"It's okay to be a little bit selfish with the ones hit to her. We're fine with that and the ones she could not get, the rest of the infield was able to get there and make plays."

South Putnam started the game with a 1-0 lead after Kenzie Trisler singled in Mattie Varvel in the bottom of the first inning.

The Eagles threatened regularly and had a 3-0 lead in the third when Gibson singled in Trisler and senior Janet Crafton.

While the defense kept Clay City in check, the hosts finally saw daylight after scoring three times in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Jenna Jones led off with a walk, then Trisler singled and stole second to set up Katie Hewitt for an RBI-single.

Crafton hit a sac fly to plate Trisler and make the score 5-0 and senior Nikki York got Hewitt home after singling to left field.

Emmie Kittle finally broke through for the Eels in the top of the sixth inning with a double off of the base of the center field fence.

A steal attempt turned into a run for the Eels when Trisler's throw from home plate sailed past Varvel and Hewitt into the outfield.

Jenna Jones tacked on the final run in style, shooting a slicing liner down the right field line that turned into an inside-the-park home run to cap the scoreline at 7-1.

Coach Jones said that, in the end, the team put together the plays needed at the right times.

"Ashlee pitched a really good game," he said. "The defense made the plays when the balls were hit to them and offensively, we took advantage of some situations where they made some mistakes and we got timely hits to put some runs on the board."

The turnaround for the Eagles will be short, as the squad plays North Putnam Wednesday and West Vigo Thursday.

Jones said that the squad was more than ready for the challenge of games on three consecutive days.

"They're softball players and they want to play," Jones said. "Hopefully, the weather is what they've said it will be and we'll get these next two games in against a great North Putnam team here and a good West Vigo team on Thursday.

"We're looking forward to it. We can only do what's in our power to do in the conference and come out ready to play against North. We're just excited to get to play some softball without rain."

At South Putnam
Clay City.....................000 001 0 -- 1 1 1
South Putnam.............102 031 X -- 7 11 3