Columbus North teammates cheer Kirsten Danford as she approaches home plate after her home run during a 2-0 home win against Shelbyville Thursday April 7, 2022.
Greg Jones | For The Republic
With Columbus North boasting one of the state’s top hitters in Maddi Rutan, Shelbyville coach Mark Hensley opted to take the bat out of her hands all three times she came to the plate Thursday evening.
The third time, Kirsten Danford made the Golden Bears pay.
After Shelbyville intentionally walked Rutan to lead off the bottom of the sixth, Danford smacked a one-out shot over the fence in left center to give the Bull Dogs the runs they would need to claim a 2-0 victory.
“After Maddi was put on, I was kind of just looking to move her,” Danford said. “I was thinking more of a hard shot, but once I hit it, I kind of thought, ‘Oh, this is really good,’ and it went over. I kind of wasn’t expecting it. We were down a little bit there, and we just needed a hit to come back and that just gave us more energy to keep going. I hit a couple out in practice the other day, so I knew I was coming out hot and came into the game ready to hit.”
Danford, a junior catcher, was hit in the shin with a foul ball in practice prior to North’s season opener at East Central. She went 4 for 4 in that game, then didn’t play in Saturday’s wins at Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South because of soreness.
Thursday, Danford went 3 for 3, recording all of the hits for the Bull Dogs (4-0) to improve to 7 for 7 on the season.
“She’s seeing the ball real well right now,” North coach Ron McDonald said. “Thank God she hit tonight because the other girls just got in a rut, and hopefully, we can bounce back from that. We’ve hit so well. We should have been better than that.”
Those runs would be the only runs Rutan would need in the circle. She threw a two-hitter and struck out 13.
“I’m really happy with the way I pitched,” Rutan said. “I couldn’t have done it without my team, but having my team have my back is just amazing. There’s more people on the team that can hit besides me, and I really love that about our team. Our team is just one of a kind.”
The Bull Dogs threatened in the second and fourth innings, putting runners at third with less than two out. Danford led off the second with a single and took second and third on passed balls, but Shelbyville’s Cheyenne Eads got a strikeout, a popup and a strikeout to get out of the inning.
In the fourth, Rutan was intentionally walked to lead off the inning. With one out, Danford singled to the fence in right center, with Rutan going to third, but Eads came up with back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game scoreless.
“We’ve been hitting the ball really well, but Cheyenne Eads did a great job pitching against us,” McDonald said. “I told her she’s gained a couple or three more miles and hour, and she pitched lights-out against us. The last two times we’ve faced her, we knocked her out of the game, and we came in thinking we were going to do that tonight, and it didn’t happen.”
