Baseball/Softball in Full Swing

Fastpitch and baseball are going full bore now that April is here.   Teams are starting to separate and find their level as the spring progresses.  So far this spring, no real surprises. The local teams that have been strong perennially are performing as expected.   There is still a lot of baseball to be played, but already teams are jockeying for position in the standings.

North baseball has been strong and this season is no different.  They posted decisive wins this week – scoring a whopping 47 runs and allowing just  2 as they posted a perfect 3-0 week over Newton, Franklin Monroe and Mississinewa Valley.   The game against Newton was a 11-0 shutout.  Look for them to be  competing for the league title again this year.  The TCN Fastpitch team was .500 for the week splitting games against Newton and Mississinewa Valley.

Preble Shawnee Fastpitch is another local team that has fared well on the diamond and again they are off to a strong start.  They have one loss on the season - a one run loss to Middletown Madison (final score 4-3).  They gave Northridge a 25-1 shellacking.  At this point in the season, they stand at a respectable 5-1 and look poised for another competitive season.   The Shawnee baseball team on the other hand, struggled this week – dropping all three games.   They came closest to Northridge 6-3 and lost to Madison 4-0 and Carlisle 11-3.

South baseball had a win and a loss this week.  They garnered a 5-3 win over Franklin Monroe, but against Bradford they ran into a buzz saw in Branden Wysong.  He recorded 14 strikeouts against the Panthers as the Railroaders shutout the Panthers 4-0.  Jordan Burns took the loss. The team is hovering around .500 on the young season right now. The South girls struggled in their two games this week.  Bradford trounced on the Panthers 18-3.  Jerica Taylor, Ali Robertson, and Sarah Bingham recorded hits in the loss.  Delaney Adams was the pitcher of record.

Next up for the Panthers was Franklin Monroe.  Although the team connected more at the plate, they couldn’t get many runs across the plate for their efforts.  The Panthers took a 14-4 loss.  And fielding for the young team was a problem as they chronicled 12 errors for the game.  At the plate, Lacey Emrick and Ashley Robertson both had 2 hits; Alyssa Kube had a single and a double,  Raven Cline and Sophie Cottingim both had singles. Ali Robertson took the loss and Delaney Adams had a relief appearance.

South’s Fastpitch Coach Robinson had some remarks on the week, “Last night against Bradford, we just didn't hit the ball well at all.  Their senior pitcher was able to hit her spots extremely well, and just kept our hitters off balanced all night.  On the other hand, Bradford had a strong line-up from top to bottom at the plate.”

Franklin Monroe, “Against Franklin Monroe tonight, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot all night long on defense.  We hit the ball much better, but when you have 12 errors, I don't care who you're playing, you're not going to win.  The frustrating thing about those errors was that in most cases, they were on the most routine of plays.  I have to think we just keep losing focus and it goes back to a lack of experience on a lot of our player's parts; it's certainly not for a lack of preparation and practice!  We have worked on situations so much in practice, it baffles me as to why we can't carry those things over into games.  Hopefully as the season progresses, we'll find ourselves getting better.”

Next week look for pictures and highlights from the TVS Fred Durkle Invitational.