BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Addison Zimpleman Natalie Warner
FULTON — Kylee Logan had the game-tying RBI single, and Natalie Warner followed with a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Class 1A, No. 8 Caston softball team to a come-from-behind 7-6 win over visiting Oak Hill Friday.
Warner, a freshman right fielder, went 3 for 4 with three RBIs and extended her hitting streak to five games. She is 10 for 19 during her hitting streak.
Addison Zimpleman, Logan, Warner and Isabel Scales – the top four hitters in the batting order – went a combined 9 for 14 in this game with three doubles, six singles and a walk.
Warner now receives protection from Scales behind her and receives RBI opportunities with Zimpleman and Logan often on base ahead of her.
“The ball is looking like a damn pumpkin to her,” Caston coach Jon Burks quipped when asked about Warner’s hot hitting. “She’s just been going off the hook here the last few games, just ridiculous.”
No. 9 hitter Macee Hinderlider also had two hits and two runs scored. Madi Douglass had a single.
Caston improved to 14-4. Oak Hill fell to 17-4. Oak Hill’s other three losses are inside the Central Indiana Conference. They had been unbeaten against Class 1A opponents prior to Friday.
“That was a real confidence booster, I think,” Burks said. “I think maybe we now may have a lineup a little bit now because everybody’s starting to put the ball in play. So good things are coming at the right time.”
Zimpleman pitched a six-hitter with two walks, a hit batter and three strikeouts. All six runs she allowed were unearned because of two errors behind her.
Karsyn Wiley’s RBI single in the top of the seventh gave Oak Hill a 6-5 lead, but Zimpleman retired Jolee Hawkins on a fly to Warner in right and Maddie Archer on a grounder to Hinderlider at third to strand two runners.
Hinderlider led off the bottom of the seventh with a double off Oak Hill’s Pathie Speicher. Zimpleman, a Purdue Fort Wayne signee, was intentionally walked.
Logan then singled to left to score Hinderlider and tie the game. Warner followed with another single to left to bring home Zimpleman with the winning run.
“I was just looking for a base hit, just to make contact with the ball and move the runners,” Logan said. “Because I knew Natalie was behind me, and she was doing really well this game. So I was just looking for contact.”
Caston trailed 5-0 going into the bottom of the third but scored four runs, all after the first two batters were retired.
Hinderlider singled and scored on Zimpleman’s double. Logan’s RBI double scored Zimpleman, and Warner’s RBI single scored Logan to make it 5-3. Warner advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored when Scales singled up the middle.
In the fifth, Zimpleman led off with a double, went to third on a Logan groundout and scored on Warner’s RBI single to center to make it 5-5.
“We kept our composure,” Caston coach Jon Burks said. “Bottom line, I saw no down faces after that bad inning. And we’re trying to clean that up, but I’m glad we really got through it. They showed their composure, some grit there to come back especially right after five (runs) on errors like that. That would have maybe drowned a team, you know what I’m saying? And coming in and just going flat. But we came right back with four, and then Addison barreled down there, and we played good D the rest of the time out and put the ball in play. That’s a quality team right there.”
Meanwhile, Zimpleman retired eight consecutive batters at one point before Lex Myers singled with one out in the sixth. But Zoey Bragg then grounded to Douglass at second base, who started an inning-ending double play with Scales turning the pivot.
But Oak Hill came back to take the lead in the seventh.
“I think this team has grit,” Logan said. “We really buckled down there. We knew we were down. We knew we needed to get hits, and we all pulled our weight through it.”
Lady Comet notes
Caston will play two road games at two different schools Saturday. They will play at Argos at 10 a.m. and then travel to Tippecanoe Valley and play there at 1 p.m. Pioneer will play at Tippecanoe Valley at 11 a.m. before the Lady Vikings take on Caston.
Caston’s game against Triton that was rained out Thursday has been rescheduled for 5 p.m. May 16 at Triton. That means that Caston’s next conference game is at Pioneer on Tuesday. Caston is 5-0 in the Hoosier North, and Pioneer is 5-1. Caston has won 20 consecutive conference games. Their last conference loss was at home to Pioneer in 2021.
Caston 7, Oak Hill 6
Oak Hill 005 000 1 – 6 6 0
Caston 004 010 2 – 7 12 2
WP – Addison Zimpleman (7 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K)
LP – Speicher (3 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K)
2B – Addison Zimpleman 2 (CAS), Macee Hinderlider (CAS), Kylee Logan (CAS)
Comments