Jay Co. softball makes semifinal

FORT WAYNE — The Patriots might have preferred to begin each inning with two outs against the Archers.
Jay County High School’s softball team scored 10 runs with two outs on Monday, defeating the Fort Wayne South Side Archers 14-4 in five innings during the opening game of the Class 4A Sectional 6 tournament at Homestead.
“We knew coming in we should be able to hit the ball and put the ball in play,” said JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle, whose team advances to the sectional semifinal at approximately 7 p.m. tonight against Huntington North. The Vikings defeated the Patriots 1-0 in the semifinal last season.
“I’m still a little disappointed we didn’t hit the ball harder than we did at times,” Arbuckle said. “Score 14 runs, of course you’re going to have a chance to win the ball game.”
The majority of those hits — and runs — came with two outs already registered.
After South Side (1-17) scored two runs in the top of the first inning, Chloe Steigerwalt of Jay County (14-13) led off the home half with a walk. After a pop out to left field, Steigerwalt was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice, leaving Catherine Dunn at first with two outs.
She advanced to third on two wild pitches, and Gabby Hart hit a single to left field to drive her in. Kady Finnerty singled and then stole second before the game was delayed for about 10 minutes because of rain.
When the precipitation passed, Kaili Baughman walked to load the bases and a wild pitch from Alana Rencher allowed Hart to score. Emily Corn reached on an error — it let another run come home — and Catera Gierhart hit a two-run single to left field, advancing to third when the ball rolled past Kymbrea Fitts to the fence.
Steigerwalt followed with an RBI single to give Jay County an early 7-2 lead. It sent 11 batters to the plate in the opening frame.
“Jay County was putting the ball where our defense wasn’t at tonight,” said South Side coach Mike Darby. “They did an awesome job hitting the ball so you have to give them some credit.”
South Side got within striking distance though with two more runs in the third inning. Maria Moore drew a leadoff walk and KiMari Houston hit a double to give the Archers runners at the corners.
Olivia Anderson, who had a double to right field in the first inning, hit Rachel Antrim’s 1-0 offering to left field. Steigerwalt charged for the low line drive, sliding on her knees in an attempt to make the catch. It bounced under her glove, rolling to the fence to allow Anderson to reach second without a throw. Houston and Moore scored to cut the deficit to three, 7-4.
But again, the Patriots pushed runs across the plate with two outs. Courtney Finnerty drew a two-out walk, and came around to score on Dunn’s second double of the game. Hart followed with an RBI single for a 9-4 Patriot lead.
“(It was a) special night for her to come up big,” Arbuckle said of Hart. The junior was 4-for-4 with three singles and three RBIs.
Jay County scored four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on an error, a double steal and RBIs from Dunn and Hart.
“We’ve had a rough season,” said Darby, who noted his top two pitchers went down early with injuries. “We have one pitcher to rely on, which is kind of tough. Once (our) pitcher goes down our team kind of goes down. We had to roll with what we had.”
The Patriots touched up Rencher for 11 hits, but were also aided by four errors.
“We made some minor mistakes on defense,” Darby said. “JC gets a lot of credit because they definitely had some good hits.”
With the Vikings up next, Arbuckle said the Patriots can’t allow themselves to get behind early.
“I don’t know if we can catch up against a team like that,” he said. “We’ll have to stay close, stay even. Our bats — I’ve told the girls all along — we’re going to have to score some runs. We’re going to have to hit the ball and score to be in these games.”