Crawfordsville softball saved it’s best performance of the season for Wednesday against the county rival. The Mounties after a 14-4 win the night before came in looking for the county sweep, but Crawfordsville’s offense had other plans. South jumped out to a 4-0 lead heading to the bottom of the second and that’s when the flood gates opened. CHS scored six runs in the second and seven more in the third and added two more runs in the fifth to earn a historic 15-5 upset win over their county rivals.
It was the first win of the season for the Athenians and the first win for first-year coach Mackenzi Landrum who was greeted with a ice water bath from her team afterwards.
“We showed up ready to play and weren’t going to back down,” Landrum said with a big smile on her face. “We told them after last night to come hungry and to be ready and give it everything you have. We really started to string hits together against Rice and played really good defense. When you do those things, good things usually do happen.”
Crawfordsville got things going in the second with a lead-off double from Brooklyn Mills. The momentum really swung the Athenians way after with one out, a dropped third strike allowed Jessica Tribble to reach first. What followed was a walk, single, double, single, single, and one last single before the Mounties could stop the bleeding momentarily.
CHS also took advantage of five Southmont errors in the win. Freshman Molly Pierce gave the Athenians a big time boost on the mound in the final three innings. She relieved fellow freshman Olivia Hedrick and over the final three innings gave up just a single run.
“We didn’t play very good defense tonight and it cost us,” Southmont coach Dan Taylor said. “Give credit to Crawfordsville for exploiting that. They had some timely hits that allowed them to be enthusiastic. Once we opened the door for them a little bit, they took full advantage. We had some hits early but we were leaving too many runners on base in those early innings. We weren’t very sharp like we have been at the plate.”
Crawfordsville chased starting pitcher Kyndale Rice after just two-plus innings. Rice allowed eight hits and nine of the 15 runs, seven were earned. She walked and struck out three. After seeing Rice the night before Landrum noted how her team felt confident coming in that they would be able to perform well not only at the plate but in all facets of the game.
“Our girls just have to be confident in what we can do,” she said. “Our defense also played outstanding tonight. I think we’re getting to the point where we’re comfortable in what we can do. Confidence is something that we’ve been preaching to these girls all season long and now it’s starting to pay off. Our defense has to expect that every ball will be hit their way and tonight they showed that.”
Crawfordsville (1-12, 1-6 SAC) was led at the plate by Mills who went 3-4 and scored three runs. Senior Halle Elliott went a perfect 3-3 with three RBI’s. Tribble added a pair of hits and runs while having a team-high four runs batted in. Celeste Moore, Christina Susdorf, and Hedrick also all had a hit each with Moore driving in a pair of runs.
Southmont (7-6, 4-3 SAC) sees their six-game winning streak come to and end. They ended with seven hits as Jenna Grino led the way with two. Anna Stokes, Chelsea Veatch, Dara Watson, Kami Dinius, and Haley Scott all ended the game with a hit each. Watson led the team with a pair of RBI’s.
For CHS the win according to Landrum will only continue to boost their confidence, but Landrum also states how her team isn’t content.
“We told them to not be satisfied and don’t settle just because of this,” she said. “It’s huge for us to build our team chemistry and confidence. We all want them to strive for the next game and continue their confidence.”
Crawfordsville has a home game on Saturday afternoon against Covington while the Mounties will travel to Riverton Parke on Friday.
