Wake up win

It was the bottom of the fourth in a one-run game.

The Patriots only had one hit, and Jaelynn Lykins had just lined out to center field.

“Ladies, wake up” rang out from somewhere in the dugout. That’s what it took for the Patriots to make some noise offensively — scoring three runs in the inning to push them to victory.

The Jay County High School softball team was able to hold off the Norwell Knights for a 3-1 victory Friday night. The aforementioned fourth inning and strong pitching from sophomore Mallory Winner secured the win for the undefeated Patriots.

After the Lykins lineout and the three-word phrase from one of the Patriots, Riah Champ was able to reach base on an error by Norwell third baseman Kaydence Clark and advance to second on Jozey Shimp’s single to deep center field. Renna Schwieterman hit a ground ball and the Knights elected to take the out at third base, leaving runners on first and second.

Taylor Brown got the Patriots (9-0) on the board with a single up the middle that pushed Shimp home.

Brianna Zorn was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for Janae Jacobs. A short fly ball that landed in front of Norwell’s right fielder, Delaney Connett, drove two more runs across the plate, giving Jay County the lead.

“I was just thinking, ‘You know, my team deserves this. You just gotta be good. We need to be up more. Be a leader and show them how it's done,'” Jacobs said.

“I think it brought up the morale a lot,” she added. “There was a big boost. Everybody was cheered up. We weren't as asleep as we were. I think I gave them confidence.”

Winner kept the Knights from even sniffing a comeback, holding them to only four baserunners over the final three innings, none of them ever reaching second base. She helped her cause by covering second base on a broken play during which a ball landed in shallow center field and the three closest players left second base wide open in an attempt to catch the ball. The heads-up play had her in position to take a throw from Mady Fraley to force out Jordan Markley.

“I knew they were going to be a good hitting team so I had to come out here and give it my all,” Winner said. “I knew that I had to come out here and have the ‘bulldog mindset,’ and even if I gave up a hit I had to just let it go and I started with the next pitch.”

Winner earned the win for the Patriots, only giving up one unearned run on two hits and two walks. She went the distance, only needing 69 pitches to get there.

The “bulldog mindset” Winner had to approach the game came through clearly to Norwell coach Kevin Baird.

“As someone who doesn't know (Winner) at all, I was very impressed by the composure she had,” Baird said. “Definitely looks like an upperclassman-type on the mound with just her demeanor and her ability to execute, so I was really impressed.”

Norwell (2-2) scored its only run in the bottom of the third inning. Elle Misch was able to reach base on an error by Brown, the Patriots’ second baseman. A ground out and a throwing error by Schwieterman advanced her to third base before she scored on Markley’s ground out Brown.

“I tell them, 'We can't give teams any extra outs. We just can't. We've gotta make plays when the opportunity is there,'” JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle said. “I don't have to say much. They know when they should have made a play and didn't. Most times they pick it up and are going to do something special the next time.”

The Patriots finished with three errors, an improvement from Thursday’s outing — a 13-7 win over Fort Recovery — when they committed seven.

Jay County took advantage of opportunities to create outs. Lykins threw down to first base and picked off Norwell’s Teagan Lesley, and Fraley threw two runners out, including the final play of the game when she caught a line drive from Misch and gunned down Lesley after she failed to tag up.

Most games this season, the Patriots have won with large offensive exhibitions, scoring a dozen or more runs in six of their first eight games. Arbuckle said he was proud of how the girls stepped up to win a game in a different fashion than they usually do.

“That’s a super ball game. We beat a good quality team,” Arbuckle said. “That's the type of game where get tournament time you are going to play some good teams and that's what you have to have to be successful and move on. … It proves that these girls have the mindset that we can play however we need to play to win ball games.”

The Patriots will play in the Richmond High School Invite today. The event will be at Centerville High School because of the industrial fire in Richmond causing air quality issues.