Two area softball teams squared off at Crawfordsville High School on Thursday as it was the home and season opener for the Athenian softball team who is being led by first-year coach Mackenzi Landrum. The Mustangs already had two games under their belt in the early season both losses to a very solid Riverton Parke team. Two big-time innings by the Mustangs allowed them to slug past the Athenians by a final score of 18-4 to secure their first win of the season.
Heading into the top of the fourth the score read 1-0 Mustangs. That was then followed by a seven-run fourth and three innings later FC scored seven more times in the top of the seventh.
The highlight of the evening for the Mustangs came from two different players as junior pitcher Kacey Kirkpatrick launched a two-run home run in the fourth for her first long ball of the year. Fellow junior Zoey Foxworthy-DeJournette was on base all night and tallied six stolen bases. On the mound Kirkpatrick threw a complete game allowing just four Athenian hits and struck out 12. Two of the four runs she gave up were earned.
“We showed that when we get on base that we’re going to be aggressive,” Fountain Central coach Ric Walke said. “It’s fun for us to play that way and it’s fun to watch. We still had mental errors but that comes with us still being a young team. We’re continuing to grow and we had some freshman step up big when we needed them to. Kacey pitched great and I was really happy to see her get that home run. Then with Zoey she just makes things happen and does it in a smart way.”
FC tallied eight hits in the win and took advantage of eight Athenian errors and 12 walks.
For first-year coach Mackenzi Landrum there were still plenty of positives that she and her staff took away from the first game of 2023. Freshman Molly Pierce made her first varsity start on the mound and fellow freshman Christina Susdorf collected three of the five Athenian hits to go along with playing good defense behind the plate.
“Molly was voted a captain amongst her peers for us so that shows how mature of a player she already is for a freshman,” Landrum said Pierce. “She held her own out there and showed us what she’s capable of. Christina has worked real hard and it was great to see that hard work pay off tonight. She does a great job of leading the in-field leads by example. These girls look towards and I think that lights a fire under the rest of them.”
Pierce in the loss threw four innings and gave up five hits. Only two of her eight runs were earned and she struck out six Mustangs and walked four.
Cville starts the season at 0-1 on the season while the Mustangs improve to 1-2.
The Athenians will be quickly back in action on Friday when they host Attica. The Mustangs will return home on Saturday when they host Lafayette Central Catholic in a double-header.
