RANDY HISNER & DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
KOKOMO – Good timing may not be everything, but the lack of it played an outsized role in the Bellmont Braves’ 4-3 loss to the Kokomo Wildcats Saturday morning in the semifinals of the Kokomo Softball Tournament.
The Braves found clutch hits hard to come by, stranding 12 runners, including the potential tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh inning.
The Wildcats, in contrast, had only eight baserunners but managed to score half of them, assisted by four Bellmont errors. Only one of the runs off Bellmont pitcher Isabelle Buuck was earned.
Kokomo scored first when Ava Federspill drove in Lucy Goad with a sacrifice fly to left field in the second inning. Goad had led off with a single, advanced to second when Buuck hit Hattie Tweed with a pitch, and reached third on a passed ball.
The Wildcats added two runs to their lead in the fourth. Third baseman Kinley Martin led off with a double. Goad reached on an error by Bellmont third baseman Aaliyah Faurote, Martin holding at second. Tweed laid down a good bunt, but Martin got caught overrunning third. The Braves didn’t make her pay for her mistake. They botched the rundown, allowing her to score. Tweed went to third on the play and then scored on Federspill’s groundout to Buuck.
The Braves battled back with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Emily Bleke led off with a single and went to second on Martin’s throwing error. Finnley Godsey drove Bleke in with a double down the left field line. With Godsey on second and no one out, Kokomo hurler Emma Lees killed the rally by striking out three straight Braves—pinch hitters Ella Franze and Chevelle Oetting and shortstop Oni Krueckeberg.
In the sixth, Taylor Sutter singled, moved to second on Liz Bobay’s sacrifice bunt, and scored on Carissa Mickley’s double.
What turned out to be the winning run scored in the sixth on a costly misplay by the Braves. Goad walked with one out. Tweed bunted her to second, and when the Braves threw wildly trying to pick off Goad as she rounded the bag, she scampered all the way home to make it 4-2.
The resilient Braves weren’t done, though. Taylor Bauer doubled to left to lead off the seventh and scored on Sutter’s one-out single to center. After Bobay popped up to short, Carissa Mickley engaged in a fierce battle with Lees, fouling off five two-strike pitches before finally drawing a walk. That brought up Faurote. She worked Lees to a 3-1 count and then hit a screaming line drive down the first base line. Unfortunately for the Braves, it was right to first baseman Tweed, who grabbed it to end the game.
“We took a little too long to get fired up,” said Bellmont coach Mindy Buuck. “We’ve got to find that energy earlier on, rather than waiting till the last inning. But we fought to the very end.”
She knew that defensive lapses cost the Braves dearly. “If you look at the scoreboard,” she said, “we had four errors, and they had four runs. That’s the deciding factor, I think, today.”
Isabelle Buuck certainly pitched well enough to deserve a win. She struck out three while yielding only two hits and two walks. In the third inning, she retired the Wildcats in order on only five pitches. Then she did it again in the fifth. “She threw great,” Coach Buuck said. “It was great to see her come up and get her first varsity strikeouts.”
Lees struck out five. She gave up seven hits and seven walks to the Braves but worked out of jams repeatedly to notch the win.
Sutter led the Braves’ offense with three hits. Godsey had a double with two walks, Bleke a single with two walks.
BRAVES SETTLE FOR FOURTH WITH LOSS TO WESTFIELD
Dropping into the third-place spot in the bracket, Bellmont squared off against Westfield, starting Taylor Bauer in the circle.
Bellmont scored three in the third with a sac fly from Bella Ashley and a couple of groundouts and the Braves took their 3-0 lead into the top of the fifth.
That’s when the Shamrocks took the lead for good, scoring three of their five runs in the frame with two outs. Isabelle Buuck came into the game at pitcher to get the final out of the inning and threw the final two frames, allowing an additional run in each.
The Braves played the second game without leadoff hitter Emily Bleke, shuffling the batting order and defensive lineup.
Bella Ashley and Finnley Godsey each had one hit. They hold the team’s highest batting averages at this point in the season.
The Braves face two crucial conference matches in the coming week, beginning with a game against Columbia City Monday and at Norwell Wednesday.
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