HOPE — Hauser was three outs away from ending Friday’s Mid-Hoosier Conference softball battle with North Decatur in five innings but ended up going the distance.
Tessa Sims, who pitched the first three innings, came back on to pitch after the Chargers plated four runs in the fifth to extend the game. She got the Jets out of that inning and pitched a perfect sixth and seventh to preserve a 10-4 victory.
“What’s most important is just staying loose, no matter where I’m playing,” Sims said. “I was pretty tight when I came back in, and everything started hurting, but I pushed through it, and we got the win, so that’s all that matters.”
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Sims cruised through the first three innings, retiring the first eight batters she faced before giving up a pair of singles. She then recorded her seventh strikeout to end the third before switching positions with first baseman Hunter Crain.
Crain struck out the first two batters she faced in a 1-2-3 fourth. But then the first five Chargers reached base in the fifth, and four scored before Sims was summoned back to the circle.
“We have to learn how to put a team away when it’s time to put them away, and we didn’t do that,” Hauser coach Craig Sims said. “We let them right back in the ballgame. We quit communicating, and we weren’t making plays once they put some pressure on us. It’s like we got complacent, and that’s not going to beat good teams.”
Tessa Sims, who struck out nine in the first three innings before giving way to Crain in Thursday’s 12-1 win at North Decatur, retired the final nine batters on Friday. She finished with 11 strikeouts.
The Class A No. 7 Jets (4-2, 3-1) got on the board with a run in the first when Mykenzie Ault walked, stole second, went to third on a groundout by Sims and scored when Shelby Fugate reached on an error.
Hauser put up five runs in the second. Crain and Hannah Johnson singled, and after they moved up on a wild pitch, Katie Taylor walked to load the bases. Tessa Sims delivered a two-out, two-run single. After a hit by Fugate, Sydney Schoen singled in Taylor, and Sims and Fugate came around to score on an error to make it 6-0.
Johnson singled with one out in the third, went to third on an error, and after a walk to Lauryn Starnes, scored when Taylor reached on an error. Starnes then scored on an Ault groundout for an 8-0 lead.
Schoen led off the fourth with a double, went to third on a bunt single by Zoee Nading and scored on a wild pitch. Nading stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout by Crain.
“I thought we came out strong and hit the ball right off the bat,” Schoen said. “Definitely seeing the same pitching the night before, it helped us get our time down early in the game, and we were just able to hit the ball.”
Schoen finished 4 for 4 to lead Hauser at the plate. Johnson went 2 for 3.
But after pounding out nine hits over the first four innings, the Jets managed only one over their final two trips to the plate.
“I thought there in the second and third and even the fourth, we made an adjustment and let the ball get deep enough to hit to to the opposite field and up the middle,” Craig Sims said. “Then, we resulted right back to getting out on our front foot and hitting the ball out front there in the fifth and sixth.”
