Under-the-radar Patriots reach softball sectional final
May 21—Terre Haute South is not the only Vigo County high school softball team that got better as its season has gone along.
The Braves, who were eliminated by Plainfield late Monday night at the Class 4A Terre Haute North Sectional, won 17 of their last 23 games after an 0-4 start.
On Tuesday, the host Patriots recorded their eighth straight win, knocking off Brownsburg 9-4 to move into Wednesday night's championship game.
(West Vigo, also comfortably on the winning side of the ledger, had won five of seven going into Tuesday's sectional game against Edgewood.)
Although they were the visiting team on their own diamond — and will be again on Wednesday — the Patriots never trailed. But although the final score looks comfortable, the game itself was less so on Tuesday.
In the top of the second, the Patriots got one-out singles by Rayven Wilson and Emma Morrison — the first of three for both players — and a passed ball and a throwing error allowed both to score. North might have had a more comfortable lead, but the Patriots left the bases loaded.
Brownsburg got its first two runners to first and third in the bottom of the inning, but North center fielder Madi Strange turned a fly ball into a double play by throwing out a runner at the plate. The Bulldogs then tied the score in the third on three walks and RBI doubles by Kensly Larkin and Ashley Sylvia (who went 4 for 4) but they also left three runners stranded.
North broke the tie in the fifth when Kara Salmon singled and scored on a double by Kenzie Zigler. Zigler took third on the throw home and scored on a hit by Wilson to make it 4-2, but Brownsburg took advantage of North's only error for an unearned run in the bottom of the inning — and left the bases loaded again.
Zigler's diving stop at third base probably prevented the tying run from scoring in the bottom of the sixth, and then North broke the game open.
Zigler led off the top of the seventh with a single, and one out later Wilson got her third hit. A wild pitch set up a two-run single by Morrison for some insurance runs, Lucy Gibson hit a two-out, two-strike, two-run homer to make it 8-3, and another Brownsburg error prolonged the inning long enough for Salmon to add an RBI single. The Bulldogs got a two-out run in the bottom of the frame.
"This team is understanding what it takes now," Patriot coach Chris Mundy said after the game. "They're buying into what they might not have been buying into before."
Freshman Kyleigh Walker allowed the Bulldogs 10 hits but just three earned runs, after Brownsburg had scored 16 runs 24 hours earlier. "She wasn't feeling well either," Mundy said, "so she did a great job."
The North coach has had faith in his team's hitting and pitching all year. It's been mistakes, both physical and mental, that have been its bugaboo.
"Since we started winning, we're not making the mistakes we were making earlier," he concluded Tuesday night. "They're believing in themselves now."
TERRE HAUTE NORTH (AB-R-H-RBI) — Strange cf 5-0-1-0, Salmon ss 5-1-2-1, Zigler 3b 5-2-2-1, Walker p 4-0-1-0, Wilson lf 4-1-3-1, Deveau pr 0-1-0-0, Morrison 1b 4-2-3-2, Lintzenich rf 3-0-0-0, Gibson 2b 4-1-1-2, Millington c 2-1-0-0. Totals 36-9-13-7.
BROWNSBURG (AB-R-H-RBI) — Larkin lf 4-1-2-1, Gordon 2b 4-0-0-0, Thompson p 3-0-0-0, Toole p 0-0-0-0, Sylvia cf 4-2-4-1, Pogue c 3-0-1-0, Paddock rf 3-0-0-0, Twomey ss 4-0-2-2, May 1b 4-0-1-0, Hunt dp 1-1-0-0, Charles ph 1-0-0-0, Bradley 3b 0-0-0-0, Koch 3b 0-0-0-0. Totals 31-4-10-4.
Terre Haute North 020 020 5 — 9 Brownsburg 002 010 1 — 4
E — Bradley, Gibson, Gordon. DP — THN 1. LOB — THN 9, Brownsburg 10. 2B — Larkin, Sylvia, May, Zigler. HR — Gibson.
Terre Haute North IP H R ER BB SO
Walker (W) 7 10 4 3 3 2
Brownsburg IP H R ER BB SO
Thompson (L) 6.2 12 8 6 2 5
Toole 0.1 1 1 0 0 0
HBP — by Walker (Paddock), by Toole (Millington). WP — Thompson. PB — Pogue. T — 2:16.
Next — Terre Haute North (20-9) plays either Avon or Plainfield in the 6 p.m. championship game Wednesday. Brownsburg finished 18-8.
