The Crawfordsville softball team has finally gotten the monkey off their back. On the night where the Athenians were honoring their three seniors and playing host to county rival North Montgomery, Crawfordsville got their first win of the season defeating the Chargers 20-10 in five innings.
One of those three seniors Allyson Barton, who has a been a catalyst for the Athenians (1-20 1-9 SAC) all season, had a senior night performance that will stick with her for many years to come. After going 0-fo-5 against Lafayette Central Catholic on Monday, Barton wasn’t going to let that same performance happen again. She was a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate with a home run and seven RBI.
“We knew that we had a good chance to get a win tonight,” Barton said. “This opened our eyes a little bit and showed that when we put things together as a team, we can do great things.”
“You could see a little more in her step tonight with it being senior night,” Crawfordsville coach Kevin Kellerman said. It was awesome to see that performance from her and from Alexus McCaskill too, she had a big hit us too to help us in the win.”
After being tied at 1-1 after the first inning, North Montgomery put six runs on the board to take a 7-1 lead and looked as if they could pull away. However Crawfordsville responded with a 10-run inning of their own re-take the lead at 11-7. The nail in the coffin came in the bottom of the fourth where the Athenians were clinging to a 11-10 lead and ended up putting an eight spot on the board to put the game out of reach.
In total the Athenians had 18 hits in the ball game. To go along with Barton’s five hits, Halle Elliot tallied three hits, and Brooklyn Mills, Jessica Tribble, and Olivia Reed each had two. One thing Kellerman has wanted out of his team is to continue to collect hits throughout the lineup; Tuesday night against the Chargers, he was able to see his team do just that.
“For the first time all year it was a complete group effort tonight,” he said. “I told them coming into the dugout after we were down 7-1 that we were fine. They (North Montgomery) started to trickle back into the game until we got a big two-out hit from Jessica Tribble and then we batted around to get eight runs with two outs and that was huge for us.”
For the Chargers (0-18-1, 0-11 SAC), the offensive numbers continue to improve. Trine University commit Makinze Rominger went 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI. Lydia Dugard. Mallory Morehouse, and Rachel Smith all had two hits each in the loss.
“We’re definitely starting to hit the ball better,” Charger coach Rob Earley said. “Even girls who haven’t hit the ball that well are starting to come around and hit better. This is the time of the year you want to see that happen. We’re going to get back at it tomorrow and celebrate our senior night and hopefully send Mak (Rominger) out on a high note.”
Along with Barton and McCaskill, Kaylie Miller was the third senior that Crawfordsville honored on the night. Kellerman took a moment to recognize all three of them and their hard work and dedication to the program.
“You can see all three of them starting to embrace being leaders and have taken on that role of a being a senior,” he said. “The fight that they always show is starting to trickle down to the other players. These girls have been through a lot. The reason we’re starting to find some rhythm as the season goes on is because of them.”
The Chargers and Athenians will square off again tonight at North Montgomery with first pitch scheduled for 5:30.
