The
St Marys Mite Girls Fastball team opened their 2015 season on Wednesday taking
on Shakespeare in their home opener at Teddy’s Field. With a good mix of veterans and rookies, the
team was looking forward to finally hitting the field after practicing for the
past month.
Getting the start on the mound was Natalie Johnston who quickly struck out the first batter to open the game. Johnston then surrendered a walk before striking out the next two to end the top of the first. In the bottom of the inning, Erin Green drew a walk to lead off then quickly stole second. With one out, Rebecca Sleeper followed with a base-on-ball bringing Johnston to the plate who quickly lined an RBI single to give St Marys a 1 – 0 lead. Three more walks, and hit batter brought in three additional runs allowing the hometown Mites to take a 4 – 0 lead into the second.
Johnston took the mound and continued her dominance quickly striking out the side to maintain the four run advantage. In the bottom of the second Angelina Vanderwal, and Green drew walks bringing Sarah Lynch to the plate who had an RBI single to make it 5 – 0. Johnston then came to the plate with one out and crushed her second single of the night while collecting two RBI’s making it 7 – 0. Two more runs were added thanks to four additional walks and St Marys took a 9 – 0 lead.
To start the third, Lynch came on in relief and made quick work, striking out the side and preserving the nine run advantage. Despite a hit batter and three walks, St Marys failed to score in the bottom of the inning after a slight coaching error sent Sleeper on a steal of second, but with the bases loaded, Sleeper was thrown out trying to return to first. In the bottom of the inning, Lynch struck out the first two batters, then gave up a hard single. However, the next batter grounded to Johnston at first who scooped up the ball and made the unassisted out giving St Marys the 9 – 0 win.
Picking up RBI’s for St Marys were Johnston with three, Kaitlyn DeBoer and Jillian Sterkenburg with two apiece, Lynch and Ava Ansley with one each.
Next up, the Mites take on the Exeter 2 squad at 6:30 on Wednesday, May 27 at Teddy’s.