Mackenzie Hampton
After coming within three outs of picking up a victory in its season opener before it was rained out, Columbus East was glad to get to play a full softball game when it hosted Class 2A No. 6 Brownstown Central Tuesday.
The Olympians used a six-run first inning to build a big lead early and had to hold on for a 12-8 victory.
“It’s nice to get a full game in against a pretty good team,” said junior Mackenzie Hampton, who went 4 for 4 with four RBIs to lead East’s 16-hit attack. “We came out really good in the first inning. I just knew that when we started off, I needed to get a hit and I felt like we executed very well. It got a little interesting there at the end, but we held it together, and we stayed together as a team as we normally will.”
Baleigh Fish and Natasha Armstrong had RBI-doubles, and Hampton smacked a two-run single in the first. The Braves (0-2) scored twice in the top of the second, but the Olympians (1-0) scored three on the bottom of the inning, capped by a two-run single by Hampton.
East made it 10-2 in the third when Lola Watkins singled, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on the throw to first.
“We came out and scored a few runs at the beginning of the Bloomington North game and got out to a big lead and did the same thing tonight,” East coach Rusty Brumett said. “Then, our bats kind of quieted a little bit. We had a couple looking strike-3 calls, and you have to put the ball in play.”
Brownstown plated three runs in the top of the fifth off Olympian starter Raegyn Foster, but then East got a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning from Jackie Boroughs. The Braves came back with three runs off Boroughs in the sixth, leading to the return of Foster to the circle to record the final out of the sixth.
Brownstown loaded the bases off with one out in the seventh, but Foster got Kinzie Dean to line out to center field, and Lola Watkins was able to double the runner off second to end the game.
East ace pitcher Fish played first base while recovering from a line drive to the shin that she took against Bloomington North.
“She’s still sore,” Brummett said. “She was ready to go in and pitch if we needed, but we have five games in six days, so we can throw everybody every night. But she’s doing well.”
Taylor Wessel
In addition to Hampton, who batted seventh in the lineup, No. 8 hitter Taylor Wessell went 3 for 4.
“The girls at the bottom of our lineup are doing great,” Brummett said. “Mackenzie hit really well, and then, so did Taylor Wessel. When you get production from 7-8-9 in your lineup like that, you’re going to do pretty well.”
Armstrong went 2 for 2, Boroughs finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs, Fish went 2 for 4 and Watkins finished 2 for 5.
“Offensively, we’re at 14 runs against Bloomington North and 12 runs against Brownstown, which is a pretty good,” Brummett said. “We talked to the (assistant) coaches after we got done, and this is is kind of where we thought we would be with this team. We’re going to play really well, and then we’re going to have a couple of innings maybe where we just get in our own way, and as long as we can battle through those and keep scoring, we’ll be fine. We’re off to a good start.”
