Bailee Scruggs
The bats were swinging for the Columbus North softball team Wednesday night.
The Bull Dogs collected 11 hits as a team, and pitcher Bailee Scruggs threw a three-hit shutout in an 11-0, five-inning victory over visiting East Central, their first win of the season.
“We started hitting the ball well (Tuesday) night (at Roncalli) in the sixth and seventh innings, and that just carried over into tonight,” North coach TJ Jarvis said.
Scruggs went the distance, going five innings, allowing three hits, with no walks and six strikeouts.
“We really talked to Bailee about getting up in the count. When she gets up in the count, she’s really hard to hit,” Jarvis said. “We really talked about that with her today, and that was getting up in the count.”
Lily Retz
North (1-2) got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the first to lead 2-0. They added two more runs in the second, three runs in the third and four runs in the fourth that was capped off with a Lily Retz two-run home run.
“Hopefully, (Retz) can add to that. This was a really big confidence booster for her tonight,” Jarvis said.
Retz finished 3 for 3 with a home run and four RBIs to lead the Bull Dogs. Morgan Jarvis went 3 for 3 with two doubles and two RBIs, Payton Morris was 2 for 3 with an RBI, Scruggs was 2 for 3 with two RBIs and Miley McClellan was 1 for 2 with an RBI.
North will look to carry the momentum further when it visits Shelbyville Thursday.
“The first two opponents we played were good. They’re good teams. They do everything the right way,” TJ Jarvis said. “I’d be honest, we didn’t want them to feel the pressure that we got to win today so we came out real relaxed and played softball and really talked to them about communicating with each other on the field.”
