July 6 vs. OABCIG

Southeast Valley softball opened tournament play at home on Thursday night (July 6th) against the Falcon from OABCIG. 

Senior pitcher Maddie VanSickle and the defense behind her showed up and showed out in order to defeat OABCIG by a score of 14-4 after five innings of play. VanSickle threw all five innings and faced just 20 batters managing to fan 2 and walk just one while allowing only four hits on the night. VanSickle commented on her team’s performance, “I am really proud of my teammates and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start our “new season”. 

VanSickle and her teammates were able to get it done on both the defensive and offensive ends. The Jags managed to score four in the first, eight in the second, one in the third, and one in the fifth inning of play for a grand total of 14 runs plated. Lauren Eslick, Leilah Olson, Kenna Scott, Alex Kitchen, and Chloe Lambert all had big hits for the Jags. 

Eslick would hit a solo shot over the left field fence in the first, Scott and Olson would both double in the second, Kitchen would smoke a two run RBI triple in the second, and Lambert would rope a double up the middle to seal the run-rule win for the Jags. 

A strong start in the first inning saw the first four batters of the lineup (Ellie Nolte, Kenna Scott, Lauren Eslick and Camryn Lane, running for VanSickle) scoring. Nolte led things off by reaching first following a hit by pitch. Nolte would steal second and score on a hit by Kenna Scott that was mishandled by the Falcon left fielder. Scott would take advantage of passed ball situations to score herself leaving the bases clear for Lauren Eslick. Eslick would get the first hit of the night, by sending a laser over the left field fence. Maddie VanSickle would also reach base and freshman courtesy runner Camryn Lane would come around to score, putting the Jags up 4-1 after just one inning of play. 

In the second inning, Southeast Valley batted through the line up and several Jags would hit, run, and score. Kenna Scott would lead things off with a double, but she would be thrown out attempting to steal home after advancing to third on a passed ball. Thanks to savvy base running by Eslick, she would replace Scott on third base after being hit by a pitch and advancing while Scott was in a run-down. VanSickle would rip a base-hit single to the left-center gap, scoring Eslick from third. With Camryn Lane running for VanSickle, the Jags utilized the freshman’s speed to steal second and third. Lane would score on a single hit by Chloe Lambert and the Jags were nowhere near done scoring runs. Lambert and Schlief were on base after Schlief singled and both would come around to score on a triple hit off the bat of Alex Kitchen to right field. Olson would bring in Kitchen after hitting a double herself to left field. The Jags would score three more times before being retired in the second, putting them up 12-1 after two complete innings of play. 

The Falcons would not go down without a fight in the third inning. While they managed to string together two base hits and score three runs, it would not be enough to overcome the Jags. The scoreboard read 12-4 in favor of the Jags and they would need just two more runs to end the game in run-rule fashion. The Jags would answer back in the third, scoring one run of their own. Alex Kitchen would again hit a triple to the right side of the field, scoring Rian Schlief all the way from first after she hit her second single of the night and in the fifth inning, Southeast Valley would end the game by a score of 14-4 when Chloe Lambert doubled to left-center field to Jordyn Rowley from second after she reached base and stole second. 

The Jags advance to the second round of regional play and will face the Rams from Greene County in Jefferson starting at 7 o’clock in the evening. “It feels so good! We have worked really hard to achieve this goal for the past few years and we worked well as a team tonight and I hope we can continue that as we advance. I’m excited to face Greene County again and show them what we got.”, senior captain Maddie VanSickle.