Kokomo — Lewis Cass’ softball team got off to a quick start Thursday and as a result, is still off to a good start in the Mid-Indiana Conference season.
The Kings put five runs on the board in the first inning at Taylor en route to a 6-2 victory and a 2-0 start to the league season.
“That’s a good start because we haven’t done that in a while,” Cass skipper Scott Rouch said. “Last year we started 0-2. [This season] is a much better start; 7-5 overall, that’s much better.”
Cass got the ball rolling instantly when leadoff hitter Peyton Klinkhamer slapped a single to start the game. After an out, the Kings strung together a walk, two everybody-is-safe fielder’s choices, a two-RBI single by Claire Pullen, and had two batters reach on errors to put five runs on the board.
“Fortunately we came in the first inning and got them to make some mistakes, took advantage of those mistakes and thank goodness we did because we didn’t do much after that,” Rouch said.
Indeed, Cass managed just four hits — all singles — and four walks against the Taylor pitchers. Taylor starter Brooklyn Lemons took the loss. Kelsey Gordon relieved in the third and gave up just one hit and a run on a passed ball in finishing the game.
“I threw Brook, tried to give Kelsey a little bit of a break, she struggled a little bit early,” Taylor coach Brian Weeks said. He noted that quickly, defensive troubles took a toll. “It seems like we have one inning a game that just tears us apart, this one just happened to be the first inning. But I did like the way they responded.
“Sometimes this year we’ve had that inning and they’ve really gotten down and had a hard time finishing the game. We came back and hit the ball, put it in play well, didn’t strike out very many times, just couldn’t get as many hits as we needed. We had some really hard shots but they made nice plays on it.”
Taylor (4-9, 0-2 MIC) got a run back in the second when Elizabeth Vautaw ripped a double to score Mone’y Black, then the Titans got a little life in the sixth when Kylie Weeks smashed a leadoff triple and Black singled her home. But the Titans didn’t get another hit and Cass scored an insurance run in the sixth off two walks and no hits.
Kourtney Mayhill walked to open the Cass half of the seventh and Ellie Cain drew her third walk behind her. The runners moved up on a ground out, then Mayhill scored on a passed ball for the final margin.
On defense, Cass snuffed out two rallies with solid play.
In the third, Taylor got a leadoff single and executed a sacrifice to move the runner, but the Kings then caught her in a rundown between second and third to squash a threat. In the fourth, first baseman Sydney DeHaven had trouble with a sharply hit ball but gathered the ball and dove to first to tag the bag with another Titan already on the basepaths. That ended the inning.
“That’s what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to play solid defense,” Rouch said, noting a solid game from shortstop Kingkhamer. “Everybody’s going to put the ball in play against us. I don’t have the kind of pitchers that are going to strike a lot of people out. They’ll get a few here and there in the game, but we’re mostly going to have to make plays. Fortunately, we were able to do that — enough.”
Kelsey Ullom was the winning pitcher. She threw all seven for Cass, allowing a pair of runs on seven hits and three walks. She struck out three.
Lemons had two singles for the Titans. Klinkhamer had two hits for the Kings.
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