Slight slip

BERNE — After Avery Brown and Lindsey LeFever reached base to start the third inning of a scoreless game, Mallory Winner worked an 0-2 count on Bekah Patterson.

Foul ball.

Foul.

Ball one.

Foul.

Foul.

Ball two.

Foul.

Foul.

Ball three.

Ball four.

It took 12 pitches, but Patterson drew the walk to load the bases.

Shelby Weigel made Winner pay for the mistake.

While the Jay County High School softball team’s offense struggled to get going, the Class 2A No. 5 South Adams Starfires scored all three runs in the third inning for a 3-1 victory on Wednesday.

“Of course they’re a good ball team,” said JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle. “They’re ranked and got a solid pitcher. Runs are going to be scarce when you play a team like that more than likely. I thought we could have done a little better job at the plate with our approach with some of our at bats. … To be honest, we haven’t seen that many caliber pitchers this year. So it’s good to see here now than down the road here in a couple of weeks for the sectional.”

The Starfires (12-2, 2-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) got runners in scoring position in three innings, but they only managed to make it to the plate in the third.

Brown sent Winner’s first pitch of the inning to shallow right field  to give South Adams its first hit of the game. LeFever worked a full count before drawing a walk to put two runners on with no outs.

Winner got Patterson to swing at the first pitch and foul off the second to go up 0-2. The JCHS senior just couldn’t finish her off as Patterson fouled off six more pitches before drawing a walk.

After the long at bat, Winner fell behind Weigel 2-1 in the count. The SAHS second baseman sent the fourth pitch to the gap between center and right field, plating all three runners.

“Mallory had a good game and she battled and we had a couple of walks,” Arbuckle said. “(Patterson) had that good at bat there with about 10 or 11 pitches and worked a walk and then of course they come up with the big hit. In a low scoring game like this, that’s key, when you get runners on base and you can get that one big hit.”

While the Starfires managed to put together a big inning, Jay County (11-2, 1-2 ACAC), which finished 11th in the Class 3A coaches poll, couldn’t break through against Addie Baker.

Through the first six innings, the Patriots only had three base runners on a first-inning single by Jaelynn Lykins and walks from Hallie Schwieterman and Jozey Shimp in the second and fourth frames.

South Adams didn’t take the Patriots’ lineup lightly, as their dugout noted how Jay County came back from a 3-0 deficit to No. 6 Woodlan on Saturday. So when Brenna Ruble worked a 3-0 count to start the sixth inning, SAHS coach Jessie O’Dell took a trip out to talk to Baker. The senior pitcher responded with three consecutive strikes to put Ruble down.

Baker followed with a six-pitch strikeout of Morgan Missicano and got Lykins to ground out to second base on the first pitch.

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