The Eagles Softball team welcomed the Forest City Indians to Greenwood Park for their conference and season opener on Monday, May 22.
In the first inning the Eagles scored two runs without recording a hit. Addison Jeske walked, and then Braxton Steil sac bunted Jeske to third base. Next, Jeske scored on an error by the catcher. Then Tarissa Middleton walked, stealing second and then scoring on a pitcher's error.
The Eagles broke the game wide open in the fourth inning scoring eight times – despite only having two hits.
Jeske walked, Steil took a hit by a pitch – the first of seven times an Eagle would be struck by a wild pitch in the game. Middleton walked and then Nadia Kaiser cleared the bases with a double!
Celeste Figueroa was then hit by a pitch, followed by a walk to Chloe Steil. Then Maddison Kaiser got hit as well, to load the bases again. Jeske then singled in two runs and Braxton Steil followed with a single that scored two more runs. Then Brooklyn Osborn gave up just a bloop single for the only hit in the game for Forest City.
"This was a good first game for us," said Coach Jim McLaughlin. "We were able to get lots of runners on base and show one of our strengths, our team speed. Osborn pitched very efficiently and was effective in pitch location and speed. Our JV also played a strong and aggressive offensive game and came away with a 12-2 victory. It’s always nice to start out the season, and
conference, with wins. We played through our opening game jitters and started building up our confidence!"
The final stats show the Eagles had four fewer at bats than the Indians with 12 to Forest City's 16, with the Eagles scoring ten runs to none, for the win! The Eagles also scored 7 RBI's, and were struck out half as often as the Indians, with four strikeouts to Forest City's eight. The Eagles also took four bases, to the Indians one.
Leading Eagles were senior Braxton Steil (with one hit, one run, two RBI's and one stolen base), junior Nadia Kaiser (with one hit, one run, three RBI's, and two doubles), and junior Brooklyn Osborn (with 4 innings pitched, and 6 strikeouts).
Photographer Mitch Jones took several photos of this match, which can be viewed and purchased at his website at mitchjones.net.
