North Marion outpowers Fairmont Senior 10-3 as both teams show improvement

Apr. 19—FAIRMONT — Making up for last week's game rescheduled due to rain, Fairmont Senior softball hosted county rival North Marion at Mary Lou Retton Park Thursday evening, starting at 6 p.m. instead of the usual 5 p.m.

Taking control of the game early and never letting go, the North Marion Huskies left victorious over the Polar Bears 10-3 due to strong batting and pitching.

"[Our players] played well as a team today," North Marion Head Coach Lacey Parker said. "Our bats came around finally. They made a couple double plays out in the field that made a big difference. Just got to keep that energy up all through the season, so they've done a good job."

Even though Fairmont Senior found itself on the losing end of the game, Head Coach Anna Runyan saw a number of positive takeaways in light of Tuesday's 22-0 loss to Lincoln.

"Obviously not what we were hoping for," Runyan said. "But the girls made a lot more contact, they talked a lot more, the energy was a lot better today. Coming off of a loss like we had Tuesday, I thought everyone's attitude was really good today, and we're looking forward to tomorrow."

Both teams' starting pitchers threw all seven innings to finish complete games. North Marion sophomore Rayden Satterfield faced 27 batters, allowed three runs and five hits, struck out seven batters, walked one and hit two by pitch in the win.

"My fastball inside and my fastball outside were doing good," Satterfield said. "And my curve was working pretty well."

For Fairmont Senior, junior Michaela Egidi faced 36 batters, allowed 10 runs and nine hits, struck out six batters and walked three. Egidi also went three for four at bats and scored two runs in the game offensively.

Egidi did this all while still recovering from shoulder surgery. It wasn't easy for her, however, especially after pitching against Robert C. Byrd on Monday and an inning against Lincoln on Tuesday.

"Coming back from an injury and surgery is very challenging because my strength is still not all there," Egidi said. "So a lot of icing and repairing my shoulder, and it's tiring after seven innings of pitching. Especially all-week games. Definitely gets tiring."

North Marion started the scoring when Reagan Ash scored off an error caused by the shortstop and left fielder running into each other to catch a ball hit by Maci Singleton in the bottom of the first. Isabella Talkington immediately followed it up with an RBI single to left to score Singleton and make it 2-0.

Abby Shuck tied the game for Fairmont Senior with an RBI double to score Egidi and Kylo Dodd in the bottom of the first. North Marion broke the tie in the top of the second with Ash batting in Kayla Moore followed by Ash reaching home on a throwing error to third by the shortstop to make it 4-2.

In the top of the fifth with Singleton and Satterfield on base, Haley Smith hit a three-run home run over the left field fence to give North Marion a 7-2 advantage over Fairmont Senior. Bottom of the inning, Jessica Jenkins scored Egidi to give Fairmont Senior its final run of the game and make it 7-3.

Satterfield tallied an RBI with a single past third to score Ash in the top of the sixth to get the five-run lead back. In the top of the seventh, Ash batted in Brooke Toothman, and Singleton scored Dakota Myers to get the final score of 10-3.

"I think we came to play and with good attitudes, and we hit the ball good tonight," Satterfield said. "And our defense was good."

North Marion gets to spend time practicing on Friday before heading east on Saturday. North Marion will play at a tournament in Keyser for the weekend and face new opponents it hasn't seen before.

"I think we can do good down there," Satterfield said. "But there's going to be harder teams. I think we can stick with them if we hit the ball and have a good attitude."

Fairmont Senior gets right back in action with a road game to Bridgeport. The Polar Bears opened the season against Bridgeport and lost 10-2. Both players and coach hope to change the outcome the second time around.

"The goal is always to improve throughout the season," Runyan said. "It's always good to play a team closer to the beginning and closer to the end. Hopefully we do a little better than we did the first time."

Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548