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North Putnam softball gets make-up victory at Greencastle on Wednesday
Game 2 of the North Putnam and Greencastle softball series was held Wednesday night at Greencastle High School. The game was postponed to Wednesday because of an earlier rain cancellation.
It turned out to be a good one between the county rivals and it came down to one swing of the bat. In the fourth inning with two out and the Cougars (9-7) down one, junior Morgan Albers hit a three-run blast to left-center field.
Those three runs were all North Putnam needed to secure a victory at its rival's house, 5-3. After that the Tiger Cubs (5-9 1-5 WCC) could not get girls on base.
"That was huge," Cougar coach Benny Ault said, "That was very, very huge. I could not be more proud of her. We had one tough game with South Put and this time she did it when it counted and that's all that matters."
"We didn't do a good job of putting the bat on the ball," Tiger Cubs' coach Dave Keller said, "Whatever it was, we just didn't hit the ball very well. Parts of our lineup that's been hitting didn't hit. We just didn't string things together. When we string things together we can put some runs and crooked numbers up on the board, but when we don't hit, we're not giving ourselves a chance."
The Cougars opened the game scoring two runs on three hits. Greencastle put one on the board to show this was no easy game.
"We started off like we normally do," Ault said, "Greencastle is a good young team. They beat us the last time and I knew we were better than what we played the last time. The girls came back with two tough losses from Cascade and I told them they can sleep on them two losses and let it ruin the rest of your season or one game can make a big change. I told them this game is a rollercoaster of emotions."
After both teams went through scoreless second innings and the Cougars scoreless in the top of the third the Tiger Cubs ramped it up and brought two runs across home plate to take a 3-2 lead. Courtney Adams singled and stole second to set up Danielle Thomas for an RBI possibility.
"Really I don't tell them anything," Ault said, "I told them we were sitting good. If you look at where we were at in the lineup and tell that to the young kids they start picking it up and realizing that they are fine and in good shape."
Thomas came through and doubled, sending Adams home then Kenlee Johnson reached on an error, which sent Thomas home.
All Greencastle had to do was hold the lead and they could steal the series. They were close to doing so, but with two outs and an 0-2 count in the fourth, Tiger Cubs' pitcher Skyler Hensley left a pitch too far over the plate and Albers drove it over the fence for the final scoring of the game.
"We missed a pitch location," Keller said, "We were trying to get away and Skyler threw a good pitch, but it got too much of the plate. When you're up 0-2. You kind of want to nibble. She threw a good pitch, just too far over the plate."
It was a low scoring affair and there was not much activity. There were only 11 hits total in the game. Ault and Adams each had two, but that was the most of anybody.
Both coaches were pleased that each team got a win.
Greencastle stole the first game of the series at North Putnam, then North Putnam stole Wednesday's night game.
At Greencastle
NP 2 0 0 3 0 0 0-- 5
GC 1 0 2 0 0 0 0-- 3
WP: Surber (NP)
LP: Hensley (GC)
HR: Albers (NP, GW 3-run)