Cavs' Steinke tames Flyers

COLDWATER - A tremendous pitching effort by Maddie Steinke was rewarded by plenty of runs scored by her Coldwater teammates as the Cavaliers opened Midwest Athletic Conference softball play with a 6-0 win over Marion Local on Tuesday afternoon at Lady Cav Diamond.

Steinke overcame some early wildness, walking three over the first two innings, to finish the complete-game, four-hit shutout with four strikeouts.

"Maddie pitched a great game," Coldwater coach Katie Berno said. "I just like the comment she made. She said 'I just let them hit it and not try to strike them out.' She had great control tonight."

The Flyers had their best chance to score in the top of the first with bases loaded with one out and Maddie Griesdorn at the plate. Griesdorn hit a line drive to Maura Hoying at short, who then ran to second to complete the unassisted double play to get out of the inning.

"We can't leave free baserunners on base," Flyers coach Julie Overman said. "First inning, we left (two) on. Second inning we left two on. We have to learn to execute."

Flyers' starter Ashley Schmidt was nearly as formidable, working out of jams in the first and second innings before the Cavaliers were able to get a run across in the third.

Lexi Meyer led off with a double. Hoying followed with a base hit to move Meyer to third. Danielle Welsch grounded out to shortstop, but Meyer was able to come home on the throw to first to make it 1-0.

Overman made a pitching switch to Marah Moeller in the fourth. Moeller struck out two batters in the fourth but had trouble in the fifth after Steinke led off with a double and moved to second on Meyer's bunt. Hoyng grounded to third and Steinke appeared to be out on a rundown. However, Steinke was able to avoid a tag to put runners on second and third as Hoying scampered to second in the hullabaloo. Moeller followed up with a wild pitch to score Steinke, with a wild throw on the attempted tag allowing Hoying to come in to make it 3-0.

Coldwater added three more in the sixth. Steinke singled in Autumn Sunderland. Payton Welsch came home on one wild pitch with Steinke coming home on another wild one.

"They started hitting Ashley, so I made the substitution," Overman said. "Marah pitched a couple good innings. (Coldwater) got ahold of a couple of (pitches). We can't walk batters or hit batters. That was the big thing. Wild pitches were what really hurt us."

"We've been working on having 2-2 counts going to the plate," said Berno, whose team only struck out four times. "When we're deep in the count, we're ready."

That was more than enough for Steinke, who at one point retired nine straight between the third and sixth innings. Marion had a chance to snap the shutout in the seventh, but after Steinke struck out Schmidt, catcher Grace Bruns fired a perfect throw to Kylie Black at third to put out Lauren Sanders on a stolen base attempt. Chloe Bertke ended the game with a groundout to first base.

"I always had a lot of confidence in our defense," Berno said. "They're very athletic. They showed they can play ball tonight."

Both teams are back in action on Thursday. Coldwater travels to Wapakoneta and Marion Local hosts Minster in an MAC contest.