DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
DECATUR – Makenzie Mankey smashed a home run and Piper Baker mowed down the New Haven Bulldogs in a five-inning romp at home Monday as the Bellmont Braves moved to 2-2 in the NE8 with a 19-0 victory.Â
The Braves hit opposing starter Andrea Davila hard in all four half-innings, tagging her for four runs in the first and six more in the second.
After falling victim to Davila’s off-speed stuff in the first inning, Mankey came back up in the second inning and made her pay, clearing the left-field fence just to the right of the flag pole and way past the pine trees that line the outside of the Bellmont diamond. The long ball scored both Mankey and Jill Wemhoff, who had doubled in a run earlier in the inning.Â
The only hit for New Haven came in the third, but the Braves still got an out when Sam Pio, who had walked earlier in the inning, was caught trying to go from first to third on the throwing arm of Ella Franze. Franze fired a bullet to Mankey at third to get the out.
Pio, who came on in relief of Davila and got all three outs in the bottom of the second, could not record an out in the third. She hit Sami Christen and Piper Baker with pitches and walked MK Scheumann, then gave up a bases-loaded single to Franze that pushed the score to 12-0.
Davila came back into the circle and immediately gave up a two-run single to Kami Jarvis.
Later in the inning the Braves got RBI triples from freshmen Finnley Godsey (her first varsity hit) and Scheumann. The Braves showed mercy to end the inning as Scheumann left early to be called out and move the game to the fourth with the score 18-0.
Bellmont put one more run on the board in their last at-bats when Franze doubled in Baker.
The Bulldogs suffered an early injury blow in the game, as well, when center fielder Haley Johnson was hit in the face with a ball in warmups before the bottom of the first inning. The team is now 3-13 this season.
Baker needed just 54 pitches to record her 15 outs, allowing just the one hit and one walk. She struck out five.Â
Every starter in the Bellmont lineup with an official at-bat recorded at least one hit, with Baker leading the way with three hits. Mankey led the team with five total bases.Â
Aaliyah Faurote walked twice, scored twice and was hit by a pitch.Â
The Braves travel to Fort Wayne Tuesday night to take on Bishop Luers, where Bellmont coach Mindy Buuck played her high school softball.