Bob Tabeling, coach of the Trinity Lutheran softball team, says it’s a good feeling when the Cougars hold a 3-0 lead after one inning of play.

Bailey Tabeling led off the bottom of the first inning with a bunt single, and the Cougars came up with three more hits and three runs in the first inning and went on to a 6-1 win over Henryville at home Tuesday afternoon.

“It always helps when we get the top of our lineup (on base) and put a lot of emphasis on the top of the lineup scoring, and we’ve been doing that in a lot of our games, so that was nice to see us get a good start,” coach Tabeling said. “Bailey came in, Grace got it moving, Madison hit the ball hard so when we get that, that’s always nice. We can count on those players most of the time, and when we start getting runs in the middle and bottom half of the lineup those are huge.”

After BT reached first with her bunt, she stole second and third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Grace Lance to center field and it was 1-0.

Madison Keith doubled to left-center and Olivia Cain was safe on an error. After Cain stole second, Maddie Adams singled to center to drive in Keith and Cain.

With one out in the second, Tabeling tripled into right-center field and scored on Lance’s ground out.

Tabeling started the rally again in the fourth with a single and she raced home on Lance’s triple.

Adams singled with two out in the fifth inning, she stole second and scored on a single up the middle by Amanda Finke.

Coach Tabeling said he was pleased to see the Cougars add runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings.

“You can’t stop against Henryville. You’ve got to try to score every inning, and we did that,” he said. “We put a couple runs here and a run in another inning and all of a sudden we’re up to six and that’s nice.”

The Hornets scored an unearned run in the top of the sixth on two hits and an error.

Tabeling led the offense with three hits and a walk, and she scored three runs.

Coach Tabeling said BT entered the game with a season batting average of .500.

Lance had a triple and three RBI, and Keith, Adams and Finke had two hits apiece. Keith, Cain and Adams scored runs, and Adams had two RBI and Finke had one RBI.

Lance went the distance on the mound and allowed five hits, one walk and she struck out six.

Coach Tabeling said, “When Grace comes in and she’s pitching and she’s on, throwing strikes, and we’re putting pressure on the other team to hit, and our defense made some really nice plays that’s nice. We started off making some nice plays and that’s what we’ve been trying to talk with her about. We tell her not to worry about somebody hitting the ball. ‘Our defense is going to make plays for you.’”

“It’s been pretty solid so far this year,” Tabeling said. “Any time we can play Henryville and be competitive with them, I think it’s a very good game. I thought we played a nice, really complete game today.”

The Cougars (7-4) will play at South Ripley Thursday night then will host a round-robin on Saturday.

The Cougars will southwestern (Shelby) at 10 a.m. Saturday, Southwestern will play Marlins Home School from Indianapolis at noon, and Trinity will play Marlins at 2 p.m.