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Warner goes 3 for 3 with 3 RBIs, Scales hits walk-off homer
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Addison Zimpleman Natalie Warner Isabel Scales
FULTON — Addison Zimpleman pitched her third shutout against a Hoosier North opponent in four days, and Isabel Scales and Natalie Warner had three RBIs each to lead the Caston softball team to a 10-0 win in six innings over visiting Winamac Tuesday.
Sophomore catcher Kylee Logan contributed a two-run single as part of a five-run second inning.
Myli Rude and Macee Hinderlider, the Nos. 8-9 and hitters in the order, had two hits each.
Scales had an RBI double in the first to open the scoring and a walk-off two-run homer in the sixth off Brooke Rausch to close it.
Caston defeated Winamac for the third straight year by 10-run rule. They have won those games by a combined score of 40-3.
Already leading 1-0, Caston got three hits in the second inning and took advantage of three Winamac errors.
The 7-8-9 hitters in the lineup were due, but Alexa Finke reached on an error on a grounder to the pitcher when the throw to first pulled the first baseman off the bag. Rude singled Finke to third, and Hinderlider singled to drive home Finke and move Rude to second.
Zimpleman reached on an error when the right fielder missed her fly ball, which loaded the bases.
Logan singled up the middle to drive home Rude and Hinderlider, and when the throw in from center field was wild and went to the backstop for the third error of the inning, Zimpleman scored all the way from first to make it 5-0, and Logan advanced to third.
“I think once you get a couple of those things happen, you’ve got to get it stopped right away, and we just weren’t able to do that,” Winamac coach Jenni Belcher said.
Warner tacked on a sacrifice fly to Corinne Ulerick in left to make it 6-0.
“I’m really liking what I’m seeing,” Caston coach Jon Burks said. “Myli had a couple nice hits. That’s what we have to do. We have to get that bottom to roll that top and be productive down there. And tonight and last night (a 16-0 win in five innings over LaVille), but still, we were productive at that point in the lineup.”
Zimpleman, who had beaten Knox 4-0 on Saturday and LaVille on Monday, stranded two runners in the first and pitched a 1-2-3 second.
Winamac got the leadoff hitter on base in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Zimpleman got Corrin Combs to ground to Madi Douglass at second base to get out of the third. She got Isabelle Decker to line out to Scales at shortstop to strand the bases loaded in the fourth.
Werner singled, and Bruce reached on an infield single to open the fifth, but Zimpleman struck out Combs looking, got Brody Goodman on a grounder to Hinderlider at third and Maggie Keller to ground to short with Scales making an excellent play.
Winamac came into the game having won seven of their last eight, and they had scored in double figures in four of those games, including in a 14-4 win over Twin Lakes on Monday.
“She throws well,” Belcher said of Zimpleman. “She seems to have good control. She seems to not back down. She likes to go right at batters. It’s probably more of her attitude and her approach to it probably more than the pitching itself. She just very much wants to be in control, wants the ball and wants to get the job done.”
Rausch scattered three singles in the bottom of the third, fourth and fifth and struck out Rude to open the sixth.
But Hinderlider reached on a bloop double, and Zimpleman walked. Hinderlider and Zimpleman pulled off a double steal. Logan popped up, but Warner ripped a two-run double to make it 8-0, and Scales homered to straightaway center.
Warner moved into the Caston school district from Brownsburg. She said she had played travel softball growing up but stopped when she was 12 because she wanted to focus on volleyball.
She was convinced to try softball again, so she could play with seniors Scales, Zimpleman, Finke, Hinderlider and Annie Harsh again. She is also basketball teammates with that group.
“A lot of my friends were going to be playing, and this is the last year with this great group of seniors that we have,” Warner said. “Just with Brownsburg, it’s a lot harder competition, so with Casron being so much smaller, it’s still competition, but you can make a lot closer friendships with people.”
She is playing right field and soaking up some of the nonconference innings in the circle that Zimpleman does not pitch.
“I’ve really been focusing on keeping my stance a lot wider since I’m so tall,” Warner said. “I want to get lower so I can have easier contact with the ball.”
Burks raved about Warner’s improvement.
“Oh my lord,” Burks said. “Ever since basically we put her in the lineup there a few games back, in practice she swings really well, and then all of a sudden, we can see what she can do. She hasn’t played for a few years and then was a little questionable, but I think she’s taken to the teammates… and now her softball abilities are starting to shine through. Tonight showed, last night showed, and the night before. I’m not big on the numbers, but I know she’s got to be in the top five of our lineup at least right now. … Offensive MVP tonight, 3 for 3 with a sac, how can you go wrong with that?”
Caston 10, Winamac 0 (6 innings)
Winamac 000 000 – 0 7 4
Caston 150 004 – 10 12 0
WP – Addison Zimpleman (6 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K)
LP – Brooke Rausch (5 ⅔ IP, 12 H, 10 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)
2B – Isabel Scales (CAS), Macee Hinderlider (CAS), Natalie Warner (CAS)
HR – Isabel Scales (CAS)
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