Sectional struggle

Copyright 2019, The Commercial Review

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By CHRIS SCHANZ

The Commercial Review

ARCADIA — The Huskies did all their damage by stringing together hits.

A couple mental mishaps by the Patriots helped, too.

That, and a stagnant offense, marked the end of the season for Jay County High School’s softball team as it dropped the opening game of the Class 3A Sectional 24 tournament to the host Hamilton Heights Huskies on Tuesday, 7-1.

“We made some unusual mistakes in the field about making decisions on where to throw the ball,” said JCHS coach Monty Missicano, whose team has now lost its first tournament game in four straight seasons and has been outscored 36-4 in those contests. “That was all our fault.”

Hamilton Heights (9-15) advances to the sectional semifinal at 5 p.m. Thursday against Delta, which topped Guerin Catholic 2-1 in Tuesday’s second opening-round game.

Jay County (9-12) finished the year with four straight losses.

Following three innings of a duel between pitchers Kailee Denney of Jay County and Adyson Baber of Hamilton Heights, the Huskies — they were the designated visitors despite playing on their home field — broke through in the fourth inning on those Patriot defensive miscues.

Baber led off the inning with a single, and Belle Neiling attempted to sacrifice herself with a bunt back to Denney. Baber beat Denney’s throw to second to give HHHS two on and none out. Sydney Massicotte hit a dribbler back to Denney, who then threw to Aubrie Schwieterman at third base. But Baber beat that throw as well.

With the bases juiced, Meredith Diller ripped a two-run single to left center, and after a pop fly to Schwieterman for the first out of the inning, Kat Cox hit a two-run double down the right field line as the Huskies grabbed a 4-0 advantage.

Hamilton Heights tacked on two more in the sixth on a Haley Green two-run single.

Jay County struggled early against Baber by striking out four times through the first two innings. Shelby Caldwell singled in the second and advanced on a wild pitch.

Baber retired the next 13 Patriots before Kensey Litton got hit by a pitch with two outs in the sixth inning. An errant pickoff attempt allowed Litton to make it all the way to third base, and Hannah Phillips singled through the left side to plate Litton.

Jay County only managed two hits off Baber, while the Huskies got to Denney for 15 hits.

“(Baber) had several (pitches),” Missicano said of the reasoning behind his team’s struggles offensively. “We’ve seen better, but we’ve seen worse too.”

Diller hit a solo homer in the top of the seventh to put Hamilton Heights on top 7-1, and Jay County didn’t have a runner reach second in its final trip to the plate.

“Other than that one inning I think they played pretty well,” Missicano said. “They all made good plays. It’s just (Hamilton Heights) hit the ball good enough to win the game.”

Massicotte was 3-for-4 for the Huskies. Greene, Neiling and Cox all had multi-hit days.

Baber finished with six strikeouts and one walk.

Denney fanned three and walked a pair, and all seven runs she surrendered were earned.