Hart, Patriots get second win

The Patriots needed 11 games to get their first win of the season.
Now they’ve won in back-to-back contests.
Gabby Hart got the offense started with a two-run home run in the first inning, and each spot in the lineup had a hit as the Jay County High School softball team defeated the Muncie Central Bearcats on Friday night, 9-4.
“It feels good,” said first-year coach Amy Hawbaker, whose team won on consecutive nights after defeating Bluffton 13-9 on Thursday. “I told them at the end of the game, I think they are finally getting a glimpse of the potential that they have that I saw at the beginning of the season that they didn’t see in themselves.
“They are starting to understand it now.”
Leadoff hitter Kensey Litton reached base on a dropped third strike in the home half of the first inning, and the speedster reached third on a stolen base and a wild pitch. Two batters later, Hart launched her second home run of the season.
Hart took the first pitch from Keely Eckman for a ball, then deposited her second offering over the fence in right field for a quick 2-0 Patriot lead.
“That just set the mood for the rest of the day,” Hawbaker said of Hart’s blast. The senior later walked in the second inning and added singles in the third and fifth to reach base all four plate appearances. “They just took off after that.”
Jay County (2-10) got to Eckman during the second, sending 10 hitters to the plate and rattling off five of the team’s 15 hits.
Gwen Bucher had an RBI groundout, Kady Finnerty ripped an RBI single and Emily Corn had a two-run double to the gap in left center.
Finnerty, Corn and Butcher all had multi-hit games, and all nine positions recorded hits, even a pinch-hit single by Katelyn Theurer in the sixth inning.
“We put ourselves in a position to fail a lot,” said MCHS coach Bob Harber, whose team fell to 2-12. “You get girls get extra bases, you put girls on (base because of) errors, they are going to score. At least that’s been our experience.
“We can’t afford to give four outs an inning. It will bite us.”
During the five-run second inning, Chloe Trissel reached third base on the RBI single from Finnerty — she took second on the throw — to give the Patriots runners on second and third with two outs and a 4-0 advantage. The Bearcats elected to intentionally walk Hart to create a force out at any base, and on ball four catcher Madyson Rhoades tried to throw to third to pick off Trissel.
The sophomore darted for the plate and slid safely ahead of the throw to make it 5-0 in favor of Jay County, and Finnerty took second ahead of Corn’s double.
“We intentionally walk (Hart), she throws down to third, the next thing we know the batter is on second an the runner from first is on third and the force out is gone,” Harber said.
Central got on the board during the third inning as Alexis Crouch hit a two-run single through the right side and Alyssa Merkel followed with an RBI single of her own to make it 7-3.
But that’s when the Jay County defense buckled down. Olivia Phillips bunted a two-strike pitch a few feet in front of home plate and catcher Sam Twigg fired to Hart at first for the second out, and Hart rifled a throw back to the plate to cut down Crouch to end the frame.
After the Bearcats cut the score to 7-4 with a run in the top of the fourth inning, the Patriots again turned a double play, this time with bases loaded.
Rachel Curtis hit a grounder to Trissel at third, and the sophomore stepped on the bag then threw to Twigg to cut down Ayala Wilson trying to score.
“They have really done an excellent job stepping up, especially these last two games,” Hawbaker said. “They’re starting to gain more confidence in their defense.”
Perhaps no one was more pleased with the stellar defense than JCHS starter McKayla Norris. The play of her teammates allowed her get out of jams when she had difficulty finding the strike zone or the Bearcats were able to find holes for base hits. The senior went 5 1/3 innings, allowed all four runs on five hits. She struck out four and walked five.
“She did struggle but she was able to work through it a lot of times,” Hawbaker said. “The defense helped her get out of the innings when she put runners on.”