The Lady Braves pose with their regional trophy on Tuesday evening at Providence High School. Brownstown will face off with Eastern Hancock on Saturday in semistate.
Submitted Photo
Brownstown’s Kyndle Huddleston prepares to hit the ball during the fifth inning. She drew a walk and scored a run to help her team win the regional.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Brownstown’s Olivia Justice waits on a pitch during Tuesday’s game. She had a two-run single in the fifth inning as the Braves won 7-0.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Brownstown’s Kelsey Schneider is ready to take off for second at the crack of the bat in the first inning. She singled and scored in this inning, and pitched a 3-hit shutout as the Braves won 7-0.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Brownstown’s Brooke Meahl scores a run in the first inning of Tuesday’s game at Providence. She had a hit and a walk and scored two runs to help the Braves win 7-0.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
The Brownstown Central softball team made history Tuesday night. The Braves defeated Providence 7-0 in the Providence Regional to claim the school’s first regional title in softball.
Former Lady Braves Coach Monte Ault coached the team to four sectional titles.
At that time, the IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletic Association) had four-team regionals which meant a team had to win two games to win a regional, and Ault’s team made it to two regional finals. Since the IHSAA changed its format, schools now only need to win one game to win a regional.
The win puts the Braves in the Forest Park Class 2A Semi-state on Saturday. Cascade will play North Posey at 11 a.m., and the Braves will face Eastern Hancock at 1 p.m., and the winners will play at 7 p.m. for the regional championship.
Eastern Hancock is the same team that Brownstown defeated in the girls’ basketball semi-state final that sent them to state in February.
Braves Coach Darren Bryant said his team turned in another outstanding team effort in blanking the Pioneers.
“That’s very special,” he said. “We went four games now in post-season play and have given up one run. We’ve been getting excellent pitching. Kelsey (Schneider) really pitched well again today. Our defense played well. We had one error.
“In warmups they were a little nervous, but after they settled down, we made some really nice plays. Our defense has been really good this whole tournament.”
The Braves liked the odd innings Tuesday as they scored two in the first and third and three in the fifth.
Schneider led off the bottom of the first with a single and Brooke Meahl walked. Both moved up a base on a wild pitch and Rylee May lined a ball off the second baseman’s glove that rolled into short right field and both runners scored.
With one out in the third, May hit a high fly ball over the fence in left-center field for her 8th home run of the season. She holds the career school record with 21.
She said she knew it was gone as soon as she hit it. “I hit it solid,” May said. “We were up 3-0 at that point.
“This was a nice win for us. I think our defense held really well. We had some plays that we probably should have gotten on defense, but other than that I think we hit well to overcome those mistakes, so I think we did well everywhere.”
After May’s home run, Kyndle Huddleston hit the ball to the third baseman, who was unable to field the ball. Adelynn Anderson went in to pinch-run for Huddleston and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Davidson.
Meahl led off the fifth with a single, and Huddleston walked. Kinzee Dean singled to drive in Meahl, and Olivia Justice singled to score Huddleston and Dean to complete the scoring.
Schneider held the Pioneers to three singles while striking out six and walking two.
She said when the seniors received the regional trophy, “It felt good. I hadn’t done it before.”
Schneider said she was retiring Providence batters “on an inside screw ball. That was my best pitch tonight. Defensively we’ve had no errors or one a game.”
She said scoring twice in the first inning, “gave us the momentum for the game. Hitting up-and-down the line-up is a key factor of our game. We rely on our hitters and we’re good.”
Senior second baseman Emily Dillman fielded ground balls to get assists for the first outs in the second, sixth and seventh innings.
Dillman said she enjoyed being part of the regional-winning team “Just to be a senior during this really means a lot, especially playing with all these girls that I’ve played with for a very long time. To make school history feels really good.
“I felt like we played good defense. We only had one error. Our team has really been really great at not making many errors.”
May, Dean and Davidson had two hits each, and May had three RBIs and Justice had two RBIs. Meahl scored two runs.
The Braves take a record of 18-11 and a 9-game win streak into the semi-state while Eastern Hancock has won 10 in a row and is 26-2.
Providence Regional Final
Brownstown Central 7, Providence 0
Brownstown hits: 2-Rylee May, Kinzee Dean, Alex Davidson, 1-Kelsey Schneider, Brooke Meahl, Olivia Justice, HR-May, 2B-Dean; RBIs- May 3, Justice 2, Dean 1, Davidson 1; runs-2 Meahl, 1 Schneider, May, Kyndle Huddleston, Adelynn Anderson, Justice
Brownstown pitching- Schneider 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 6 K, 2 W