NEW MARKET — Ella Barry flashed a smile and high fived a teammate after the final run scored Tuesday evening.
The Southmont sophomore’s 15 strike out performance on the mound gave her Mountie team plenty of offensive ammunition in a 10-0, six inning win over rival North Montgomery at Mountie Field. “Sometimes it’s hard to get the nerves out of the system,” South coach Dan Taylor said. “But we got hits all the way down the lineup so extremely happy with our offense. Defense had just one error and Ella pitched great.”
North managed just three baserunners on a hit, walk and that error. The ball never left the infield after the first inning single by Sophie Welshimer as the other three outs were all grounders.
The big turnaround for Rob Earley’s team was an errorless contest after committing seven the night before in a loss to Parke Heritage.
“There were positives we can build off of,” Earley, in his sixth season, said. “There were some great at bats even against Barry, who’s a great pitcher. We had some plays we should’ve made, missed a couple cutoffs, but we made improvements so I’m happy about that.”
South’s big inning was the second, plating six runs and batting 11. Two were driven in on a bases loaded single by Sammie Crosby. The Mounties had six hits, all singles and two walks in the frame.
Every Mountie reached base at least once and all had hits except Kinzie Wood, who reached on a walk. South (1-0, 1-0 Monon Athletic Conference) had 14 hits for the game. Crosby and Kenzie Clate led the way with three apiece.
Barry threw 78 pitches en route to her 10th career win and 13th complete game. She has now registered 167 career strike outs in 115.2 innings.
Sophomore Kendra McClamroch also went the distance for the Chargers (0-2, 0-1), tossing 133 pitches, striking out three and walking four.
“She’s a workhorse,” Earley said. “She threw 83 or so last night so a lot of pitches the last 24 hours.”
The two teams meet again Wednesday, the first time playing back to back since 2019. Taylor’s team liked that.
“I don’t recall ever opening with North,” he said. “It’s a rivalry game and our players are excited to open with them. They played us tough.”
Earley looked at positives and some quick fixes.
“We still need better at bats, better angles in the outfield, but nothing that can’t be fixed,” he said.
