Werner’s homer, Valley miscues lead to Winamac’s season-opening win

Hall’s perfect relief stint saves win for Rausch

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Adrianna Hall Mikayla Werner

AKRON — Mikayla Werner’s two-out, two-run homer capped a three-run fifth inning, and Adrianna Hall pitched 2 ⅔ innings of perfect relief to save the win for Brooke Rausch as the Winamac softball team beat host Tippecanoe Valley 6-2 in the season opener for both teams Tuesday.

Brody Goodman added a hit and two RBIs for the Lady Warriors.

Freshman first baseman Naomi Gaerte went 2 for 2 with a walk in her Valley debut. Kaitlyn Threlkel stole home, Elise Smith had an RBI, and Dalynne Bussard struck out 10 in the circle.

But the Lady Vikings committed four errors while Winamac had just one. Three of Winamac’s runs were unearned.

“I’m not concerned,” Valley coach Brian Barger said of the defense. “It happens, and we’re going to bounce back tomorrow (against Mishawaka Marian) and move on.”

Trailing 2-1, Rausch escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the third with three straight strikeouts. 

Bussard, a junior, retired 10 straight batters at one point, but Winamac senior second baseman Lauren Bruce’s speed started the fifth inning rally. She hit a grounder with heavy English towards shortstop Mackaylie Costello and beat Costello’s throw to first for an infield single.

Bussard struck out Hannah Meyer. Linzy Walters then laid down a sacrifice bunt. Bussard threw to Naomi Gaerte at first for the out. Gaerte threw to second base behind the runner, but Bruce kept on going and beat second baseman Olivia Powell’s throw to third.

Brody Goodman then grounded a single just to the right of second base to tie the game.

“I thought the first-to-third play was huge,” Winamac coach Jennifer Belcher said of Bruce. “She said she was going into second, and they didn’t quite have the defensive coverage at third yet, and she also saw an errant throw and took off, and I thought that was a great read.”

Werner fell behind 1-2 in the count before she socked a two-run homer to left-center to give Winamac a 4-2 lead.

“I was just thinking contact and putting the ball in play to get on base,” Werner said. “I knew when it hit the bat, but I wasn’t expecting to hit a home run.”

In the bottom half, Rausch got K.C. Shriver on a fly to shallow center but walked Bussard and Gaerte.

Belcher summoned Hall from left field to pitch.

Barger had Mackaylie Costello bunt, but she popped up a bunt that Linzy Walters caught at third base.

Hall then struck out Threlkel to avoid further trouble.

She struck out the side in the sixth.

Winamac tacked on two insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a throwing error on Walters’ grounder and an RBI groundout from Goodman.

Hall then got Kahlyn Manns on a liner back to the circle, struck out Shriver and got Bussard on a fly to center to end it.

Belcher said Hall has a little more speed in the circle and has a little different movement while Rausch’s repertoire is more dependent on her defense.

“I didn’t necessarily ask Brooke if she was getting tired, but we knew that we wanted to make a change at some point in the game and just give the other team something different to look at, so she was kind of on a shot leash at that point because of where we were in the order, so when she walked that second one, that’s what us decide to do that,” Belcher said.

Winamac opened the scoring in the top of the first on back-to-back Valley outfield errors on Maggie Keller and Corrin Combs’ fly balls.

Rausch struck out Mackaylie Costello with two on to dash Valley’s first-inning hopes, but the Lady Vikings got to her in the second.

Threlkel led off with a single, stole second and advanced to third on Malaynie Costello’s single in her first varsity at-bat. Malaynie Costello then stole second, and when the throw went through, Threlkel took off and beat the throw back to the plate to complete the double steal.

Temperance Caudill’s sacrifice bunt moved Malaynie Costello to third. Smith sent a hot grounder that Goodman made a diving stop on at first base. Goodman elected to take the unassisted out at first base as Malaynie Costello scored, giving Valley a 2-1 lead.

Shriver walked to start the bottom of the third. Bussard then hit a hot grounder to short that brought Maggie Keller to the seat of her pants. Keller’s throw to second for an attempted force was late. Gaerte then singled to load the bases with nobody out.

Rausch met the challenge. She struck out Mackaylie Costello looking at an off-speed pitch and then nipped the outside corner to strike out Threlkel looking. She then blew away Malaynie Costello to end the inning.

“I’d like to have that one back, maybe try to squeeze or something like that,” Barger said. “At least you have Costello and Threlkel, your 5-6-7 hitters. The lineup is balanced this year. Those girls have been through this situation. The elements were tough tonight. It was cold. She was 3-0 on M.J. (Mackaylie Costello) and bounced all the way back. I give her credit for that because she got herself out of that big pickle.”

Both teams went down in order in the fourth.

Winamac 6, Tippecanoe Valley 2

Winamac 100 030 2 – 6 5 1

Valley 020 000 0 – 2 5 4

WP – Brooke Rausch (4 ⅓ IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K)

LP – Dalynne Bussard (7 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 10 K)

S – Adrianna Hall (2 ⅔ IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K)

HR – Mikayla Werner (WIN)