Zionsville falls to HSE in sectional semifinals
May 21—The Zionsville softball team ran into a top pitcher in the sectional semifinal on Tuesday night.
Hamilton Southeastern's Grace Swedarsky threw a no-hitter, striking out 17 as the Royals ended the Eagles' season with a 2-0 victory.
"We didn't make a lot of contact and the times we did, we didn't get it out of the infield," Zionsville head coach Mike Garrett said. "They didn't have a lot of hits either, only four, and you prepare all year long for games like this, we just ended up on the wrong side."
The lone Eagle base runner came in the top of the fifth, when Abbie Geib was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
But Swedarsky retired the next three batters, and followed it up with five strike outs over the final two innings. She threw just 82 pitches, 64 for strikes.
"We were prepared for it, we just didn't execute," Garrett said. "We tried to drop a couple bunts, just fouled them off, and sometimes it's just a bad time to lay an egg offensively."
It was a bad case of deja vu for the Eagles, who lost to the Royals 1-0 a year ago in the sectional on an unearned run.
That was the story again Tuesday, as a two-out error in the second kept the inning alive, and HSE capitalized with a hit to score a run.
They added another run in the third on a ground out, but that was all they could muster against Zionsville's Leah Helton, who struck out 11 herself and allowed just four hits and three walks.
"We will work hard in the off-season and we still have a lot of growth ahead of us," Garrett said. "We graduate one player, but our returning girls have to improve. We are close, but we're still the bridesmaid right now."
The Eagles finish the season 13-9, taking some big steps forward as a program with several quality wins this year.
Garrett said the program is in good shape, and a loss like Tuesday is going to serve as motivation to get to the place they want to be in the coming years.
"We keep on improving and work on this," Garrett said. "We're hanging this on our bulletin board to help us in the off-season during lifting, hitting and running. We'll get there; we're close. The kids know now that they belong in these games and the next step now is winning these games. We will keep scheduling the good teams we play and make sure we are ready for the end of the year."
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.
