Jay wins in wild affair with Rebels (04/27/04)

PORTLAND — Jay County and the Muncie Southside Rebels had already played each other in football twice this year. They went at it again Monday, this time without the pads.

The schools’ softball teams scuffled in a rough-and-tumble game which included three big collisions as the Patriots topped Southside 9-6.

“We had a lot of chances,” said coach Dan Wickliffe of Southside, which eliminated the Patriots from the 2003 sectional tournament. “Jay County’s a good hitting team, and I figured if we could hold them to nine runs we’d have a chance to win.”

With the victory the Patriots tied their win total from last year and surpassed the 2002 mark. They improved to 6-8 overall and 2-3 in the Olympic Athletic Conference.

“I’m very happy,” said first-year coach Jack Wood. “The thing that bothers me though is we let at least three get away from us. A play here and a play there and we’re 9-5 or 10-4 even. We’re happy, but we’re not satisfied.”

The biggest drama Monday didn’t have much to do with the outcome of the game.

Following a pair of earlier crashes between Jay County base runners and Muncie Southside fielders, Katie Alberson and Felisha Fritz became the third duo to get tangled up. All four players involved in the first two incidents were OK, but the third didn’t go so well.

Alberson, the Patriot first baseman, was reaching for the throw from pitcher Brittany Logue when she and Southside leadoff hitter Felisha Fritz crashed at first base. Both players had to come out of the game, with Alberson suffering what likely was a broken nose.

The three collisions characterized a hard-fought game in which Jay County beat the Rebels for the second time this season.

Early on it didn’t look like that would be the case, as the first five Rebel batters reached base — four on hits — and all five scored.

However, Amber Champ started the Patriot half of the inning with a triple, and Jenni Chittum brought her in with a single. Chittum would score two batters later on a ground out by Alberson.

Jay County grabbed the lead for good after a one-two-three top of the second.

Miranda Betz, Erica Murray and Champ opened the Patriot half of the second with consecutive hits, and Chittum added a walk. Betz scored on Murray’s single, and a fielder’s choice loaded the bases for Ashleigh Myers.

Myers slapped an infield single, crashing into first baseman Becky Dodd as she reached the bag. All three runners scored on the play as Southside tried to retrieve the ball, giving Jay County a 6-5 lead it would never relinquish.

It scored one more time in the fifth inning and twice in the sixth.

Champ finished 3-for-4 at the plate with three runs, and Chittum, Murray, Myers, Stephanie Imel and Chelsea DeBoy each had a pair of hits. Imel had a pair of doubles, DeBoy hit one off the fence in center field and Betz added another.

Chittum scored a pair of runs, and Myers drove in two.

Southside (1-9, 0-4 OAC) stranded a boatload of runners, leaving 10 on base in the final five innings. It couldn’t score with the bases load and no outs in the third inning, and left two runners on base in each of the final three frames, scoring just one unearned run in the seventh.

“When they had the bases loaded and nobody out, that’s the kind of inning we’ve been talking about — making the play instead of making an error or a throw-away,” Wood said. “We made the plays tonight. That could really be a key point of this season.”

“We had so many opportunities to score,” said Wickliffe. “We had several opportunities to get the lead back after they went up 6-5 and we could just never get the big hit.”

Fritz went 3-for-4 with a double and a run before leaving the game. No. 2 through 5 hitters Miranda Kipfer, Fallon Shively, Amanda Koons and Brooke Bailey also got to Logue for two hits apiece.

However, Logue had an uncanny knack for working her way into and then out of trouble after the difficult first inning.

The Patriot junior tossed a perfect second, but then put runners on in the third by way of a single, a double and a walk. She got out of the bases-loaded, no-out situation by getting three straight ground balls.

Logue again allowed back-to-back hits to open the fourth inning before working out of trouble. She had runners on second and third against her with one out in the fifth and sixth, but got a pair of fly balls in both frames to escape the trouble.

She allowed one unearned run in the seventh, but it was too little too late for the Rebels.

In all, Logue pulled even on the year at 3-3 by allowing six runs — four earned — on 13 hits in seven innings. She walked four and struck out two, and pitched scoreless softball in the third through sixth innings despite giving up seven hits and three walks during the span.

“Brittany has really come on,” said Wood. “She started off slowly. She didn’t have any speed in the beginning, but I don’t think she was loose. She’s just getting better and better and that’s going to help us down the road.”

Nickelle Jones to the loss for the Rebels, allowing nine runs — seven earned — on 14 hits in six innings.

She struck out two and walked two.

Jay County — which has won three straight games since being no-hit by Norwell Friday — will try to continue its winning streak when it visits Huntington North Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]