RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
“We gotta play better defense to win ballgames,” said Adams Central softball coach Matt Zimmerman after his team lost to Homestead, 12-2, Wednesday at the Jets’ field.
That summed up the game perfectly. The stats of Homestead hurler Macy Arnold and Adams Central pitcher Lilli Jackson were uncannily similar. Arnold gave up 10 hits, striking out two and walking one in five innings; Jackson gave up 9 hits, striking out one and walking one in four and a third innings. (Brinlee Rinkenbarger recorded the last two outs, giving up two hits and no walks.)
Not enough of a difference from the pitching circle to account for the 10-run disparity. It came down to defense. Homestead committed only two errors—and made a couple outstanding plays—while Adams Central committed eight errors, leading to eight unearned runs.
Zimmerman felt Jackson deserved a better fate. “Lilli pitched a really good game,” he said. “Brinley came in and did her job too. We just couldn’t play defense behind them.”
The other difference in the two teams’ performances was in clutch hitting. The Jets left bases loaded twice and stranded 10 runners; the Spartans drove in all their baserunners except two.
The Spartans (8-12) scored a run in the first inning when Gabi Silkworth laced a two-out single to left to score Claire Landrigan, who had led off the game with a double.
The Jets loaded the bases in their half of the first. Jozie Zimmerman reached base with an infield single with one out, and Izzy Isch moved Zimmerman to second with a two-out, line-drive single to left. Brooke Thomas loaded the bases when Landrigan, at short, erred on her grounder. But Arnold pitched out of the jam by retiring Jenna Cook on a ground ball to second baseman Peyton Renier.
Three runs in the second inning, all unearned, put Homestead up 4-0. The Spartans had only one hit in the frame—a lead-off single by Addie May Fleming—but four Jet errors, Jackson’s only walk, and a passed ball combined to fuel the rally.
The Jets (9-7) got one run back in the bottom of the second on Athena Schwartz’s two-out double that drove in Baylee Smith, who had walked.
The Spartans rallied again in the third, slapping out five hits to score four runs—all with two outs—and make it 8-1. The big blow was a bases-loaded, two-run bloop single to left field by right fielder Trinity Rager.
Five more hits in the fifth led to another four runs for the Spartans and a commanding 12-1 lead.
But the Jets did their best to claw back and attempt to avoid the 10-run mercy rule. Melina Peralez led off the bottom of the fifth with a single to left, and Izzy Isch reached base on an error. Brooke Thomas then singled, loading the bases. Cook drove in Peralez with a grounder to Landrigan, who opted for the force out at third. Pinch hitter Lillie Liter followed with a bunt single, again loading bases with one out.
But Arnold recovered, retiring Rinkenberger on a popup to short and striking out pinch hitter Kotta Suman on a changeup to end the rally and the game.
Schwartz and Zimmerman both had two hits for Adams Central. Landrigan, Renier, and Grace Jordan had two hits apiece for Homestead.
Coach Zimmerman remained upbeat, despite the loss and the uncharacteristically poor defense. “It was our worst performance of the year defensively,” he said. “But you know what? We’ll build on that and we go into tomorrow and it’s a new day and it’s a new game.”
The game he referred to is Thursday’s matchup at South Adams against the 15-2 Starfires, a county rival as well as an ACAC foe. The game will start at 5:00 P.M.