Lapel offense roughs up Patriots

Seemingly before the Patriots could blink Saturday, they were already in a hole to the Bulldogs.
And as both games of the doubleheader progressed, Lapel continued to pour on the offense.
Lapel roughed up the Jay County High School pitching staff for 39 hits — including five home runs — in a sweep of the host Patriots. The Bulldogs won the first game 19-6 and the second 14-3. Both only lasted five innings.
“(They’re a) very strong offensive team,” said JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle, whose team is without its ace pitcher Larissa Boles. The senior injured her knee Thursday making a play near the plate. “When you don’t have a strikeout pitcher, it puts an awful lot of pressure on your defense to make plays.
“Unfortunately, when we had opportunities to make plays, we didn’t make plays. Bottom line is they hit the crap out of the ball.”
Lapel coach Scott Rich was anticipating a matchup against Boles, and he was disappointed when he found out his team would not get the opportunity.
“I was looking forward to seeing how we were going to compare with her pitching and our offense,” said Rich, whose team moves to 11-2. “We have a good group of girls that can put the ball in play. I was really hoping to be able to get that challenge today because I think she is one of the best pitchers we (would) face.”
Instead, the Bulldogs wasted no time getting their offense going.
With one out and runners on first and second during the first inning of game one, McKenzie Land hit the first pitch of her at bat for a two-run double. Jasmine Hazelbaker followed with a two-run home run to left field, giving Lapel a 4-0 lead. Hazelbaker added another three-run shot in the second inning.
Jay County (9-8) answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second on singles by Gabby Hart and Randi Auker. Kaili Baughman hit a single to drive in Hart, and Auker scored on an error by Taylor Murdoch in center field.
Sophie Cline, who started in the circle for the Bulldogs, ripped a three-run homer in the third inning, igniting an already-hot offense that scored nine runs in the frame.
Hannah Harless, MaKenzie McGuire, Brittaney Young and Cline all had RBIs, and Murdoch drove in a pair on a double. In all, Lapel sent 13 batters to the plate, with Cline’s bomb chasing Patriot starter McKayla Norris from the game.
“Anytime you can put a lot of runs on the board and take some of that pressure off of your defense and off the pitcher, it helps free the game up,” said Rich. Lapel had 21 hits in 40 at bats in the first game, and nearly matched that total with 17 hits in game two. “Everyone plays a little freer when they see they have a lead on the board.”
Jay County, which has lost three straight games after upsetting Class 3A No. 1 Leo on Tuesday, didn’t roll over when it trailed 16-2. Catherine Dunn, who took the loss in game two, had a two-run home run in the third inning and drove in a pair of runs in the fifth on a single. The senior added a three-run, no-doubt home run in the fifth inning of game two as well.
“The top of our order hadn’t been producing much,” said Arbuckle. The three players at the top of the Patriot lineup — Chloe Steigerwalt, Courtney Finnerty and Dunn, combined for 10 of their team’s 14 hits on the afternoon. “We need to get more consistency out of Chloe and Courtney. “Hopefully this will be a confidence booster for them, especially Chloe. They have to get on for Dunn and (Gabby) Hart.”
Lapel led 3-2 in the second inning of game two until Hazelbaker hit an RBI single up the middle. Harless then joined the home-run party, launching a 2-2 pitch from Dunn over the scoreboard in left-center field for a three-run homer and a quick 7-0 Bulldog lead.
Land drilled a grand slam in the fourth as part of a six-run frame, giving Lapel a 13-0 lead. She and Hazelbaker each finished the day with six RBIs.
Dunn was 3-for-6 and led all players with seven RBIs. Steigerwalt was 4-for-6 with a double and two runs. Finnerty had two singles and scored three times.
Moving forward, Arbuckle said his team has to improve defensively to make up for the loss of Boles, who is likely to miss the rest of the season.
“We’re not going to get 12, 13 strikeouts a game so defense is going to have to step it up,” he said, adding that Boles had the potential to limit teams to two or three runs a game. “We may not have that from now on. We are going to have to produce offensively a little bit more.
“I told them it’s going to have to be a whole team effort. We cannot go through the rest of this month of May and into tournament with only three or four girls contributing. We have got to have a total team effort and we didn’t have that all the way around today.”