Columbus East’s Adisyn Ross gets a hit in a softball game against Edinburgh at the East baseball and softball facility in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, March 26, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Edinburgh was clinging to a 1-0 lead on Columbus East with two out in the bottom of the fourth Tuesday when it had a golden opportunity to get out of the inning unscathed.
But a foul popup off the bat of freshman Baleigh Fish fell inbetween a pair of Lancers. Fish then launched a home run to left-center to tie the game.
“Two errors there that let those two runs, we should have had that catch,” Edinburgh coach Ben Taylor said. “That would have put us out clean in that inning. But we’re young, and we’re working.”
The next batter, Natasha Armstrong singled to center, and when the ball skidded on the wet turf and went all the way to the fence, Armstrong came all the way around to score what proved to be the winning run in a 2-1 Olympian victory in their debut on their new field.
“Anytime a team gives you extra outs in an inning, you have to make them pay for that,” East coach Rusty Brummett said. “We capitalized on a couple of mistakes. This field is different. This field is very quick, and if you don’t play or practice a lot on an outfield like ours, it can force the defense to make some mistakes.”
After the Olympians’ Hermione Robinson retired the first 11 Lancers, they reached her for a run in the top of the fourth. With two out, Kyah Streeval tripled to right, and MacKenzie Bieker lined a double down the left-field line.
That lead was short lived, with Fish smacking the homer on only the second plate appearance of her high school career.
“I went up there thinking all we needed was a base hit,” Fish said. “We just needed runners because I had faith in my teammates who were behind me to get just as big of hits as I could get. At first, I was really nervous, but as you’re on the field with all your friends and you’re just having so much fun, it’s a breeze. It’s exciting. No words can describe how happy I am to be on this field right now with all of these people. I’m very thankful.”
Robinson and Bieker both threw four-hitters. Robinson struck out nine Lancers, and Bieker fanned eight Olympians.
Edinburgh made huge strides from its season-opening 18-0 loss to Whiteland last week.
“I’m really happy to get out of here 2-1,” Taylor said. “It starts to get a little bit easier from here. We get the big schedule out of the way. They responded nicely after 18-0. They could have came out a little bit defeated against a 4A again, but they were ready to go this time. Mac pitched a great game, and we had some good catches from the girls who have not played a lot of softball.
“Hitting-wise, we were a lot more prepared,” he added. “We had girls that had a full week of practice this time around. Against Whiteland, we had just got some girls back from spring break that hadn’t had a lot of reps. Having that extra week and having seen Whiteland, that helped us in the box for sure.”
Bieker finished 2 for 3 at the plate for the Lancers. Sullivan went 2 for 3 for East.
“It definitely makes me feel better and more hopeful about the season,” Sullivan said. “It kind of just was fun to play ball. We have this new field, and so it was nice to be able to pull off a win. It made me a little proud of my team.”
“You take a win,” Brummett added. “There is never a bad win. You just keep getting better, and hopefully, we can get three more wins this week.”
