No. 1 Eels outhomer Patriots

Apr. 30—Terre Haute North's first seven batters produced three singles and a double Tuesday evening in high school softball at Clay City.

Clay City's first five batters went single, single, flyball to the left-field wall (dropped, precipitating some interesting baserunning decisions), homer, homer, and the tone had been set for the Eels' eventual 7-3 win: two teams capable of breaking a game open at any time.

That the score stayed as low as it did was a credit to the pitchers from both sides.

"Our pitching was pretty good," said coach Jason Sinders of the Eels, currently ranked first in the state in Class A. "[The Patriots have] some pretty good hitters, and it's hard to keep a good hitting team down."

"We outhit 'em," coach Chris Mundy of the Patriots pointed out, while admitting the home team had easily won the home-run race. "In the [top of the] first inning, we were killing them."

The Patriots got two quick line-drive singles by Madi Strange and Kara Salmon to start the game, and with two out Kyleigh Walker delivered an RBI hit. Paige Lintzenich led off the second inning with a double to the left-field corner, but by that time circumstances had changed.

Lizzy Sinders led off the bottom of the first with a single and Lexi Thompson dropped a line drive into center to put runners at first and second. Hannah Harris hit the blast that was dropped at the wall, but one runner was thrown out at the plate. A wild pitch tied the score, and then Faith Mitchell and Karlee Smith went back-to-back — Smith's first career blast — for a 4-1 Clay City lead.

Surprisingly there were mostly scoreless half-innings the rest of the way. Clay City scored in only one more inning, on back-to-back bombs by Thompson and Harris in the bottom of the fourth.

Kenzie Zigler doubled with two out in the top of the fifth for North and scored on a dropped pop fly, but even after a hit by Walker kept the inning alive, the Patriots were only within 7-2.

"I liked that when we did make mistakes, we moved on and kept playing," coach Sinders said afterward.

North got its final run in the top of the seventh, Salmon getting her second hit of the game and scoring on a two-out single by Emma Morrison.

For Mundy, the outlook for the Patriots has remained the same.

"We'll hit, but you've got to make plays," the coach said. "I'd say six of our eight losses [have come by not making plays], some of them because we didn't make one play."

TERRE HAUTE NORTH (AB-R-H-RBI) — Strange cf 4-1-1-0, Salmon lf 4-1-2-0, Zigler ss 4-1-1-0, Morrison c 4-0-1-1, Walker p-1b-3b 4-0-2-1, Wilson 3b 3-0-0-0, Hayes rf 0-0-0-0, Lintzenich 1b-rf-1b 3-0-1-0, Gibson 2b 3-0-1-0, Deveau rf 1-0-0-0, Mondy p 2-0-0-0. Totals 32-3-9-2.

CLAY CITY (AB-R-H-RBI) — Sinders p 3-1-1-0, Thompson ss 3-2-2-2, Harris c 3-2-1-1, Mitchell 1b 4-1-2-2, Smith 3b 4-1-1-1, Shearer 2b 3-0-0-0, Stoelting lf 2-0-1-0, Rhodes dp 3-0-0-0, Crabb cf 0-0-0-0, Rexrode rf 1-0-0-0. Totals 26-7-8-6.

TH North 100 010 1 — 3

Clay City 400 300 x — 7

E — Salmon, Smith 2, Zigler. LOB — THN 8, CC 8. 2B — Lintzenich, Zigler. HR — Mitchell, Smith, Thompson, Harris. SB — Shearer, Stoelting. SH — Rexrode.

TH North IP H R ER BB SO

Walker (L) 1 4 4 3 1 2

Monday 5 4 3 3 3 6

Clay City IP H R ER BB SO

Sinders (W) 7 9 3 2 0 7

HBP — by Walker (Shearer), by Walker (Stoelting). WP — Walker, Sinders. T — 1:48.

Next — Terre Haute North (9-8) hosts South Vermillion on Wednesday. Clay City (12-1) celebrates Senior Day on Friday with a home game against North Daviess.