Streak could be a boost for Jay

It’s not always easy to replace one of the best players in program history.
That’s especially true when said athlete is one of the most prolific pitchers, and guided the team to the most wins and fewest losses in school history.
That was the task the Jay County High School softball team was faced with this season — replace Larissa Boles.
Two years ago, Boles was a crucial piece to the Patriots going 23-2. The 2015 graduate put up pitching numbers most often found on a video game.
What she did that season was ridiculous.
She had a 0.59 ERA in more than 130 innings pitched. She only gave up 53 hits in 506 batters faced, which is one hit for almost every 10 players who stepped to the plate.
She allowed 25 runs — 11 earned — with 32 walks and 200 strikeouts, while pitching seven shutouts. Opposing hitters were batting .114 with an on-base percentage of .188.
But she wasn’t able to have quite an encore the following year.
Her senior campaign was cut short because of a knee injury, and when she got hurt the demeanor in the dugout changed. Without Boles, the Patriots were no longer as dominant, but they also had to rely on youth in some important infield positions.
A year later, Boles is gone, as are many other pieces of that 2014 team, the best team to ever wear Patriot red, white and blue on the softball diamond.
So going into this season, hopes were high, but Jay County didn’t have an identity. It didn’t have the outstanding pitcher in Boles. It has a stable of capable pitchers, but none that were as effective as Boles before her injury.
McKayla Norris was the most experienced in the circle. She pitched a little as a sophomore, and was thrust into the leadership role as a junior. She was not as overpowering as her senior teammate, but she could still get the job done.
With a dominant pitcher, softball teams need only score a run or two to win. Without that ace, the offense and remaining eight players on defense has to make up for the difference.
That was the main goal for the Patriots entering this year — a complete, team effort from every position on the field and all nine spots in the lineup.
Easier said than done.
It was a rough start for the Patriots, who lost their first 10 games. Not too long ago it took 16 games for the Patriots to lose for the first time, yet this year it was almost just as long for the first win of the season.
But May 6 at Bluffton against the Tigers, the previous 10 games of the season meant nothing.
When Jay County got off the bus, they were a different team. They played with passion and a will to win that was absent for the first 10 games of the season.
The result was a 13-9 victory, their first of the season, and an end to the 10-game losing streak.
The next night came win No. 2, at home against the Muncie Central Bearcats, by a 9-4 margin.
Two days. Two wins.
And suddenly games one through 10 were a distant memory.
“I think they are finally getting a glimpse of the potential that they had that I saw at the beginning of the season that they didn’t see in themselves,” Hawbaker said after the Muncie Central win. She echoed that statement four days later. “They are starting to understand that now.”
Tuesday, the Patriots hosted a formidable foe in the Southern Wells Raiders.
From the top of the first inning, it looked like any chance Jay County had at pushing the win total to three games had to wait.
The Raiders scored four runs in the top of the inning, including a three-run home run.
But just as quickly as Southern Wells jumped on Norris and the Patriots, Jay County returned the favor. A three-run blast from sophomore Emily Corn — her first career round-tripper — gave the home team a 5-4 lead, one it didn’t relinquish.
Three games, three straight wins.
“It feels awesome,” Norris said. “We had a really rough start obviously, but getting three wins in a row, we are up and we believe in ourselves, which we didn’t have.
“Now we do and I think we can keep going because of that.”
All it takes is a win or three for a mindset to change.
Two years ago, the Patriots went into games knowing they could win. It was just a matter of how few runs the other team would score.
Earlier this year, they just hoped to keep it close and play a full seven innings. Now they take the field with a belief they can win.
With the poststeason a couple short weeks away the last three games might just be the boost the Patriots need for a run at a sectional title.