Seven straight

Four singles, two doubles and one towering home run.

Seven hits in a row.

That’s how the Patriots ended their season opener early.

The Jay County High School softball team just kept hitting in their final at bat Monday, smacking seven in a row, including a Riah Champ homer, to finish off the visiting Blackford Bruins 13-3 in six innings.

Jay County (1-0) was already up 7-3 and in control when sophomore catcher Jaelynn Lykins began the sixth inning with a double that hit the fence in center field. A single from first baseman Jozey Shimp put two runners on for Champ.

The sophomore watched the first pitch go by before blasting a towering shot well beyond the fence in left-center field for a three-run home run.

“I’m going to smash this ball,” is what Champ said she was thinking to herself when stepping into the batter’s box. “It felt great. I saw it and thought, ‘Yes, that’s gone.’”

Senior Renna Schwieterman followed with a double and scored on an RBI single from Taylor Brown. Brianna Zorn and Janae Jacobs followed with singles to load the bases.

After a pop out, pitcher Mallory Winner headed to the plate with an opportunity to save herself another trip out to the circle.

“I definitely was thinking about that,” Winner said.

She did the job, drilling a single up the middle to bring home Brown and Zorn to end the game.

“I was thinking that I just need to score a couple of runs, I don’t need anything too big,” Winner said. “I just needed something that could score my runners.”

Winner earned the win as she struck out five batters while allowing the three runs on six hits and two walks.

The Patriots first pulled away from the Bruins in the second inning, when they scored four runs on four hits. Winner and Shimp both drove in runs, while two more crossed the plate when Savanna Morris couldn’t handle a shot from Mady Fraley.

“I’m very pleased with (how they hit). When you put the bat on the ball and you hit it hard good things are going to happen,” JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle said. “You get base runners on and these girls can barrel it up and we can score some runs. I’m not sure how many strikeouts we had but for the most part put the ball in play. Good things are going to happen when you do that.”

Eight out of the nine Patriot batters recorded at least one hit, while all reached base and scored a run. The effort included:

Winner — two hits, including the game-ender, and three RBIs

Lykins — three hits, including a double and the home run, three runs and one RBI

Shimp — 4-for-4, including a double, two runs and one RBI

Champ — three hits, including the homer, four RBIs and one run

Jacobs — 4-for-4 with one run

While the Bruins had a baserunner every inning, they were only able to score in the third and fifth, when they were helped by an error, a walk and a passed ball.

Left fielder Macey Abbott was Blackford’s bright spot offensively, recording two hits, scoring twice and driving in a run. Serenity Lehman was 2-2 with an RBI on a sacrifice fly to center field.

Lehman suffered the loss for the Bruins, surrendering seven earned runs on 11 hits while striking out five in three innings of work.

While the Patriots’ effort was enough to win the game by the mercy rule, Arbuckle noted some mental miscues with missing signs and failing to communicate on throws. Those are issues the team will need to work on today as it travels to Bellmont, he said.

“When we are playing better ball teams we can’t make mistakes like that,” Arbuckle said. “They ran some when they weren’t supposed to run and then we didn’t run when we were supposed to run. We didn’t get some bunts down and even tried to bunt it on pitches that weren’t in the strike zone.

“Things we have to clean up, but in the first game we can’t expect perfection. That’s something we can work on throughout the year.”