Hit girl

FORT RECOVERY — Carrie Schoen has coached Emma Will for a majority of her life, starting as a youth player, all the way up to varsity.

Over those years, Schoen watched Will collect an abundance of hits.

At the varsity level, those hits have added up to the point where Schoen got to watch the senior make Tribe history.

Will went 2-for-4 to break the Fort Recovery High School softball team’s career hits record and help the Indians to a 12-1 victory over the Anna Rockets on Tuesday.

“It was exciting,” Will said. “I’m just proud of myself, because I did work hard for this and I hope to break records, but I didn’t know I was this close. … I’m just proud to represent Fort Recovery and I hope people look up to me and see my hard work as an example.”

With a pair of hits against Anna (11-7), Will surpassed Brenna Homan for Fort Recovery’s all-time hits leader. Homan, who went on the play at the University of St. Francis, set her record of 120 hits in 2021.

“I’m so incredibly proud of her,” said FRHS coach Carrie Schoen. “She’s worked so hard to get where she’s at and she’s just the greatest kid. She’s one of the most coachable kids and I’ve had so much fun coaching her. I’ve been coaching her since she was a kindergartener, through summer ball, through travel ball, through high school ball and just to see her flourish and do as well as she’s done it makes my heart so happy. I’m very proud of her.”

While Will didn’t realize it, the FRHS senior entered the game already tied for record. The record stayed in Homan’s name after Will flew out to center field in her first at bat.

Will only needed one pitch in the second inning to write her own name into the record books.

 She sent that pitch deep into right field right along the foul line. Dana Pleiman nearly made a diving catch, but only managed to get her glove on the ball. It ricocheted off her mitt, allowing Will to cruise into second base with a double for her 121st career hit while Paisley Hart made her way to third.

“It was kind of a confusing moment, because it was kind of foul but it was fair,” Will said. “We really needed that (spark) because we started out very slow and we knew we could get on this team. So that was just a good moment for us.”

Hart crossed home plate on a sacrifice bunt by Ava Grisez. Will scored on a first-pitch, two-run bomb to right-center field by Jenna Homan to put FRHS up 3-1.

While Will’s next at bat didn’t produce a hit — she grounded out to shortstop while driving Hart in — she notched hit No. 122 on a ground ball to third base that plated Hart.

Courtney Klenke of the Fort Recovery softball team rounds third base and makes her way home to tack on the ninth run of the 12-1 victory over Anna. Klenke scored twice in the game as a courtesy runner. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Will wasn’t the only Indian with a big offensive day. Other offensive standouts for Fort Recovery (10-6) included:

•Jenna Homan, who drove in a team-high four RBIs on the home run and a double that drove in two to walk the game off

•Hart, who led the team with three runs scored with a double and a walk

•Ella Schoen, who went 2-for-2 with a walk

•Layla Armstrong, who scored twice and drove in a run on a single and a walk

•Grisez, who plated runs on a sacrifice bunt and a single to left field

Jenna Homan earned the victory, pitching all five innings for the Indians. She gave up one unearned run in the third inning before the Tribe offense came alive for three runs in the bottom half, followed by five in the fourth and four in the fifth.

The junior got herself in some trouble a handful of times, but didn’t surrender any extra runs. 

In the second frame, she walked three batters but ended the inning by fielding a swinging bunt for the final out. 

She gave up a leadoff walk in the fourth inning, followed by a fielder’s choice that allowed both runners to be safe before generating three outs with a pair of strikeouts and catching Pleiman trying to steal third base. 

Jenna Homan hit the second batter of the fifth inning and later gave up a double to put two runners in scoring position before inducing her second inning-ending dribbler that she picked up and fired to first.

“The strike zone was kind of all over the place tonight, so I could see Jenna getting frustrated but she kept battling,” Schoen said. “She wasn’t hitting her spots all the time, but once things finally clicked, she started to hit those spots, we were working on pitch at a time and she got there.”