Sabella Moore used her glove to swat the pesky gnats and mosquitoes from her face. The next pitch she used the same glove to field the ball swatted to her and a routine throw to first base.
The Crawfordsville freshman shortstop and her teammates played flawless defense all evening. Then the hitting and baserunning did its part in a 12-2, five-inning win over Montgomery County rival North Montgomery Wednesday evening.
“We came out ready, top to bottom,” CHS coach Mackenzi Landrum said. “We embraced the role, the same thing we’ve been talking about all year. We got it done.”
Meanwhile, North’s defense was on the other end of the spectrum. The home team took advantage of five Charger errors, three in a five-run second inning.
“Most of those are simple opportunities and you can’t give them extra at bats,” North coach Rob Earley said. “We have to learn from it and move on.”
“We talked about it before the game – looking to take extra bags, being aggressive on the bases,” Landrum said. “We were getting really good dirt ball reads.”
The Athenians (2-16, 2-8 Sagamore Conference, 2-1 Montgomery County) outhit North
(4-12, 2-7 SAC, 0-2 MC) eight to seven and did not commit an error.
“That’s huge,” Landrum said. “We looked loose. We’re making plays. We’ve been preaching confidence and tonight you could see it. They made it look effortless.”
The visitors did not quit, including three of the hits in the last two innings with the other four in the second frame. North only struck out twice.
“We didn’t stop. We didn’t give up. That’s a good sign. That last inning we put the ball in play. I’m proud of them for that,” Earley said. “We had to cut down their strike outs and they did that. We had to make something happen and put the ball in play. We did that.”
Another CHS freshman, Angeli Martinez, threw 68 pitches for the win. Christina Susdorf had doubles her first two at bats, drove in four runs and filled a role at first base.
“We miss her behind the plate, but it’s nice having her at first base,” Landrum said. “Again, it’s embracing the roles and watching her hit like that is fun.”
CHS batted around in that second inning after plating a pair of runs in the first. Just one hit and the three errors played a part as four of the five runs were unearned. The big blow was the bases-clearing hit by Susdorf.
North used four singles in the second to tie the game at the time 2-2. Hope Delp, Megan Raff, Faith Shirar and Bailey Nichols all contributed. The raps by Raff and Nichols drove in runs.
Nichols also had a double in the fifth inning, but was thrown out trying to stretch an extra base, for the lone Charger with multiple hits.
Delp was respectable on the mound as only six of the runs were earned, struck out four while walking two.
“Her strike out to walk ratio hasn’t been 2-to-1. Tonight, it was,” Earley said. “So that’s an improvement. She’s a sponge. She doesn’t say a whole lot, but she’s intense and learns.”
The same two teams play Friday at North to make up the Tuesday rainout.
“We’re going to remind them in practice,” Landrum said. “Take it nice and slow, focus on the fundamentals and come out ready to play again.”
“These girls can play the game,” Earley said. “It’s about transferring the practice team to the game team. Monday, coaches talked this is the best we’ve seen all year. Just have to keep fighting, stick together and battle for each other.”
