DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
The pressure of a conference title race and a big rivalry game between Adams Central and South Adams was evident on both sides Thursday night. The two teams nearly combined for as many errors (13) as hits (17), but by the time Peyton Pries entered the game to pitch in the fifth inning, the visiting Starfires led 8-1 and there was no way the senior leader of the team was going to let that lead slip away. The game ended with a 9-2 Starfire victory, dashing the hopes of Adams Central to win the ACAC title.
“We won with humility last night,” noted head coach Jessie O’Dell after a fairly uneventful end to the game and a quiet seventh inning for both teams. “We know how good that team is and we know that if we can get by Bluffton, we will have to play them again.”
Gracy Bixler fired the first four innings for South Adams, allowing just four hits and one unearned run.
Pries allowed three hits in her three innings of work and was credited with the save. She struck out two.
The key half-inning in the game was a four-run effort by the visitors in the top of the second.
After scoring a run with a sacrifice fly in the first, the Starfires continued to play small ball in the second. Tessa Bernard was stranded on second base with two outs, but the situation did not prevent coach O’Dell from asking Cora Baker to lay down a bunt.
Baker did as she was asked and reached on a bunt single, turning the lineup over to leadoff hitter Macy Pries, who tripled in two and then scored herself on Bekah Patterson’s triple.
Peyton Pries made it 5-0 with a double.
Baker had another bunt single to start a rally that ended with a sacrifice fly by Peyton Pries in the fourth.
Cora equalled her earlier feat with a third bunt single in the fifth inning, this time with a runner on third, and drove in the eighth run for the Starfires.
Adams Central got a run back with the speed of Jenna Cook, who was safe at home on a straight steal with Sophia Schwartz at the plate.
Schwartz was subsequently hit with a pitch by Peyton Pries, but the senior induced a double play with a pop up to sister Macy Pries, who then threw to second to get Melina Peralez, who was off the bag.
South Adams added an insurance run with a delayed double steal with runners on first and third and Peyton Pries coming home to make it 9-2.
“We were excited and proud. We get back to work this weekend,” said O’Dell of his team’s matchup with Eastbrook Saturday. “We know that the next time we face AC, the task will be even tougher.”
“It’s just a reminder that we still have a lot to work on,” noted AC head coach Cary Blake. “A lot to do and improve to be a really good team.”
Macy Pries was 3 for 5 for the winning side, while Melina Peralez finished 3 for 4 in the losing effort for the Jets.
Addie Baker threw the first four innings and allowed seven runs, with four being scored as earned.
Maddie Hill threw the final three innings, allowing two runs and striking out three.
South Adams is set to play at Eastbrook Saturday, while Adams Central will host Angola in a doubleheader that same afternoon.