Offense was the name of the game during the Brownstown Central-Trinity Lutheran softball game on the Cougars’ field Saturday morning.
The teams combined for 26 hits, including four home runs and five doubles in the Braves’ 15-9 win.
Brownstown’s Rylee May and Trinity’s Ally Russell hit the first home runs of their careers. Russell is a junior and May is a freshman.
Both girls were happy to see their drives go over the fence.
May said, “The pitch was kind of inside for me, and I’ve always liked inside pitches so I swung at it and it went over. It felt good. It’s the first one this season after Alli (Reynolds). She’s hit five this season, and I was just hoping to get one.”
May scored four runs as she had three hits and was safe on an error, and she finished with two RBI.
“I think both teams played pretty good,” she said. “They are a pretty good-hitting team. Our defense was really good today. We played really well, we didn’t make many (1) errors today. I think that is what won us the game.”
May said the Braves need to make adjustments when they face fast pitchers. “You need to watch the ball and if it’s a fast pitcher scoot back in the box because you don’t want to be late on it.”
Russell said, “I’m not really sure what kind of a pitch it was. You’ve just got to keep your eye on the ball and swing. It feels pretty good.”
Russell had RBI in the first and sixth innings in addition to her home run.
“I’m getting more comfortable swinging into it,” she said. “We just need to keep our eye on the ball and have some confidence and have fun out there.”
The Braves had hot bats from the start as Erin Singleton, Kelsey Schneider, and Zoe Stuckwisch had hits in the first inning, plus they received two walks and took advantage of three Trinity errors to take a 6-0 lead.
The Cougars got two of those runs back in the bottom of the inning when Russell and Dianna Munoz drove in runs.
The Braves finished with 14 hits with Schneider getting four hits, May three, Addyson Coomer two, and Emily Dillman had a 3-run double.
The Cougars hit three home runs as Genesis Munoz hit her sixth of the season with one runner on in the second inning, and Bailey Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning just before Russell hit hers. It was Reynolds’ fifth homer of the spring.
Braves assistant coach Darren Bryant said, “The wind was definitely blowing out. They’ve got some good hitters. We knew they had some girls that could really hit and that’s not the kind of girls you want to hang a pitch to.
“We played good defense and hit the ball well. I think the difference was the errors they made and the errors we didn’t make. We’ve been hitting the ball much better and we’ve got to continue that.
“Our pitcher can definitely throw better than she did today. She missed her spot a few times, and she knew that. She got ahead in the count real well and just didn’t work on staying ahead in the count, didn’t take advantage of the advantage that she had produced for herself.
“It’s going to come down to our pitchers being consistent. They’ve all had games where they’ve been real good, and they’re just not consistent. If we can get their best when we get into the sectional we’ve got as good a chance as anybody to win it.”
Cougars Coach Bob Tabeling said he talked to his team about the number of hits and runs the Braves scored.
“Normally eight runs is going to win you a lot of softball games from that standpoint. We had some good situations that came up offensively, we were swinging at some good pitches, and because of that it turned into some runs for us.
“On the other side, Brownstown put the ball in play and forced us to make plays and we made some (5) errors. We just can’t do that.”
The Cougars had three players missing, including regular shortstop Bailey Tabeling.
Coach Tabeling said not having the regular defense out there hurt his team.
“We go through the season and talk about people playing in different positions, and just get out there and do your best, don’t try to do anything too spectacular. Just make the routine plays because we know you’re in a new position.
”We played with nine. It was a different day for us. The plays we didn’t do well on I really don’t think that was being in a new position. An outfielder is an outfielder from that standpoint. We just made some errors on plays we shouldn’t have.”
The Braves (16-10) will host Paoli today and Trinity (9-10) will host Milan today.
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Brownstown;630;105;0;-15;14;1
Trinity Luth.;220;301;0;-8;12;5
BC hits: Kelsey Schneider 4, Rylee May 3, Addyson Coomer 2, Erin Singleton, Zoe Stuckwisch, Rehgen Stuckwisch, Alli Reynolds, Emily Dillman; HR: May, 2B: Dillman, Schneider, May, Z. Stuckwisch; runs: May 4, Schneider 2, Coomer 2, Z. Stuckwisch 2, Singleton, Reynolds, R. Stuckwisch, Huddleston; RBI: Dillman 3, R. Stuckwisch 2, May 2, R. Stuckwisch 2, Coomer
BC pitching: Huddleston 3.2 IP, 9 H 7 R, 8, K, 1 W; May 3.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 K, 0 W
Trinity hits: Genesis Munoz 3, Bailey Reynolds 3, Ally Russell 2, Dianna Munoz 2, Kamzi Gross, Olivia Cain; 2B: Reynolds, home runs: G. Munoz, Reynolds, Russell; runs: G. Munoz 3, Reynolds 2, Morgan Brewer, Gross, Cain; RBI: Russell 3, G. Munoz 2, Reynolds 2, D. Munoz
Trinity pitching: Gross 7 IP, 14 H, 15 R, 6 K, 3 W
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