Patience at the plate

A pair of groundouts to the pitcher and a flyout to center field, getting the Eagles off the field in only five pitches left coach Doug Arbuckle unimpressed with the Patriots’ approach at the plate in the bottom half of the first inning.

His speech to the girls in between innings must have worked, because the Patriots never sent less than eight hitters to the plate and scored less than four runs in the next three innings to end the game early.

The offensive adjustment led the Jay County High School softball team to its third victory via mercy rule of the season over the Delta Eagles 16-3 on Thursday.

“The response shows a lot about their character,” Arbuckle said. “Whatever reason today, even warming up today we felt like we were a little flat and weren’t into it too much. I talked to them a little bit about it that you have to come prepared to play no matter who the opponent is. Everybody’s gunning for you and you have a bullseye on your back now.”

Despite having run ruled Marion and Blackford in their first two games — Jay County (3-0) scored at least one run in the first inning of those contests — the Patriots let Delta (1-2) escape back to the dugout, while only forcing Katelyn Burns to throw five pitches.

Arbuckle pulled his girls together as they were heading out to play defense, to talk about their approach at the plate and urge them to be more patient.

“(Coach) knew that she wasn’t throwing a strike the first pitch every time," said Jozey Shimp, who was an offensive leader with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBIs. “So he wanted us to sit and wait on anything we could hit in the gaps. … That’s what I did. I knew I didn’t want a changeup, so I was looking for something down the middle that or that I could hit to a gap.”

Photo Gallery

Jay County softball vs. Delta (4/10/2025)

Carley Trinidad — who secured the win in the circle with three unearned runs on eight hits, two walks and three strikeouts over five innings — surrendered singles to Destinee Drown and Ava West before a pair of strikeouts gave JCHS a chance to put what Arbuckle had to say into practice.

Shimp started Jay County off in the second inning with a screaming line drive that went off the glove of Drown at third base. Mallory Winner, Hallie Schwiterman and Trinidad all followed with singles to crack the score board. JCHS would score a fourth run in the inning off a single up the middle by Morgan Missicano as well.

The third inning started off hot as well with Shimp and Winner smacking back-to-back doubles off Haley Loser to score another run. The second run came on a ball Schwieterman smashed right at right fielder Liz Bramlett, who charged in too far and let the ball tip off her glove. Two more scored on a Missicano infield single, the first of which she drove in and the second as a result of an error by Caidyn Freiburger.

JCHS went on to score eight more runs — none of which were earned — in the fourth inning on four hits, three errors and two walks.

In general, Jay County was better able to take advantage of errors than the Eagles. Of the Patriots’ 16 runs, only two were earned as they benefitted from 10 Eagle mistakes, including a passed ball.

“I think it’s just a mental ball game,” said DHS coach Caitlyn Grim. “I think it has to do with age and learning the game and the IQ of softball at this level and knowing it’s OK to make one mistake, but you can’t let it turn into two.”

On the other side, Delta only managed to plate three unearned runs, despite having runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings.

One reason DHS wasn’t able to take advantage of the five Jay County errors was the Patriots having three key defensive plays to directly save runs or cut an inning short.

The first two plays came in the fourth inning between third base and home plate after. First, JCHS caught Loser in a rundown after Trinidad fielded a bunt by Bramlett, ultimately resulting in the runner being thrown out returning to third base. Three batters later, Bramlett tried to score on an Ava Smith to left field, but got gunned down at home plate by Dakota Chowning to end the inning.

The final key defensive play came in the fifth as shortstop Brenna Ruble caught a short fly ball and quickly flung the ball to first base to double up Burns and end the game.

“We preach to them about next play,” Arbuckle said. “You have to have a short memory and not dwell on it. We had those three nice plays there. … Those were key plays to turn things around.”