By Will Willems
Staff writer
Lebanon —
Last season, the Lebanon Tigers girls’ softball team saw most of its success start with the bottom three in the order.
This season, Lebanon head coach Steve Smith wasn’t sure he was going to be able to have the same type of production from that portion of his line-up. He found out Tuesday night.
The 8 and 9 hitters in the Tigers line-up sparked two big innings as Lebanon defeated Tri-West 11-1 in five innings Tuesday night in the Sagamore Conference opener for both teams.
“Last year we counted on those seven, eight and nine hitters to give us production,” Smith said. “This year I thought it was one thing we were missing. But tonight it looks like we are going to be able to do that again.”
Lebanon’s Paige Keller and Tri-West’s Anna Warren tossed matching zeros through the first two and a half innings.
Brandi Metcalf (Lebanon’s No. 8 hitter) led-off the bottom of the third inning and hit a triple to left center field.
Laci Richardson followed and singled home Metcalf to give Lebanon a 1-0 lead.
A triple by Kalyn Harker and a single by Danielle Bruner made it 3-0 before Warren got back-to-back outs. But Lebanon wasn’t done getting a three-straight hits from Keller, Karson McCollum and Sydney Sloan to go up 5-0.
That was all the help Keller needed.
The sophomore struck out four in five innings to record the win.
Tri-West only had three hits on the day, two by Jessie O’Neal. One of O’Neal’s hits was a home run to lead off the fourth inning, the only run given up by Keller.
“With the wind blowing out the way it was I was expecting three or four home runs from either team,” Smith said. “They got one on a real good stroke and it may have been out regardless of the wind. She (Keller) made one mistake, and in a five-run game it is not a big mistake. That is one thing we have told the girls. (We have to) take care of our business so when a mistake like that happens — and I am not going to call it a mistake, she (O’Neal) deserved it she hit it — but when you give up a home run you can get passed that.”
Lebanon matched the Bruins run with an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth and then scored five times in the fifth to win it.
Keller led off with a double and scored on an error. With two away, an RBI-single by Richardson kept the inning alive.
Harker followed with a single and she and Richardson scored on a Bruner double. Lexi Reese singled home Bruner to end the game.
Lebanon improved to 5-0 and 1-0 in the conference.
“It feels real good (to win the first conference game),” Smith said. “Especially coming during spring break when all the girls friends are calling them and texting them from Florida or wherever. I am happy with the way we played after the first couple of innings. We have a few little things to work on but definitely a good start.”
Tri-West is now 0-2 and 0-1 in the conference. The two teams will face off again Thursday at Tri-West.
Last season, Lebanon won the first game rather easily, then lost the second game to the Bruins.
That loss cost Lebanon a conference title.
“I keep telling the girls that we need to work on our five-inch game — the distance between their ears,” Smith said. “(Warren) pitched pretty well, and at one time she was about 80 percent first-pitch strikes. So we told our girls to go up there and be aggressive. And that is when we hit the ball well. So we want to maintain that focus at the plate and take that into Thursday. This is kind of the same as last year, where we won the first game big and then they beat us in the second game. It cost us conference title so we owe them one.”
