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South Putnam opens softball season with comeback win
Opening the 2022 softball season, South Putnam hosted North Vermillion Tuesday in conditions befitting of late March in Indiana, namely cold, overcast and blustery.
The Falcons grabbed an early 5-0 lead but the Eagles bats stirred in the latter half of the game, tying the game in the fifth and getting the go-ahead runs in the sixth as part of an 8-7 win.
“(North Vermillion) brought back three of the bats that beat us last year,” South Putnam head coach Mark Hamilton said. “The turning point was seeing Faith Will hit her home run.
“The girls got pumped up after that and the younger girls, who had to step up, stepped up. There were a couple of throwing errors but the defense was pretty solid.”
Both pitchers, South Putnam’s Sabrina Leonard and North Vermillion’s Addi Burns, worked out of any trouble in the first two innings but in the top of the third, the Falcons broke through.
Olivia Pearman started the inning with a walk, scoring on an Alexis Brink single.
Ava Martin plated two runs and later scored as the visitors sent all nine batters to the plate and assuming control of the game with a 5-0 lead.
The Eagle comeback began in the bottom of the fourth when Will hit a two-run home run to right-center field, cutting the gap to 5-2.
Peyton Freeman added a third run by bringing Ariel Dooley in to make it a 5-3 game.
North Vermillion pushed the lead back out to three in the fifth as Martin knocked in her third run of the night but by the end of the inning, the game was tied.
Chlara Pistelli, Will and Jaicee Jackson drew walks around a Leonard single to force home a run before Dooley and Joscelyn Pilcher singled to bring in two more runs and tie the game at 6-6.
“We like that because we preach aggressive patience in the box,” Hamilton said about the offense in the fifth. “We want the girls to be aggressive at the plate but we also want to be patient and hit our ball.
“The couple of good hits we had were the girls hitting their ball and taking advantage of a struggling pitcher.”
The Falcons managed to avoid giving up the lead but the Eagles had the momentum in their camp and found two more runs in the sixth.
Leonard and Will reached base to set up Jackson, who hit a soft liner down the first base line that was missed off the top of a mitt, allowing both runners to score and give the hosts their first lead of the night.
North Vermillion pulled a run back after Brink scored on a Martin single but Leonard was able to get a pair of groundouts to Chloe and Chlara Pistelli to end the game.
South Putnam returns to action next Monday with a road trip to the other side of Vermillion County, taking on South Vermillion.
“That’s a rematch of our last game in the sectional,” Hamilton said. “I thought we could have won that last year but (South Vermillion) came back and made it all the way to semistate.
“They’ve got a good team but they have a new head coach, so we’ll see. We’re pretty pumped up after tonight.”
North Vermillion 005 010 1 — 7 10 4
South Putnam 000 332 S — 8 12 3
WP — Leonard CG, 8 H, 7 R (4 ER), 2 BB, HBP 7 K
LP — Burns 6 IP, 9 H, 8 R (5 ER), 4 BB, K
HR — Will
2B — Martin (2)
RBI — Martin (4), Rink, Bailey; Jackson (3), Will (2), Freeman, Pilcher, Dooley