Wildcats defeat Bulldogs

CELINA - Minster Head Softball Coach Robb Hemmelgarn walked down the third baseline and delivered a message to Jenna Poeppelman ahead of her fifth-inning plate appearance.

"She hadn't gotten a hit yet through two scrimmages and two games," Hemmelgarn explained. "I think she was starting to let it get into her head a little bit. She's just dying to get that hit. I said 'Look, there's a confident hitter inside of you and there's a non-confident hitter. Get rid of that non-confident hitter, find that confident girl and just swing that bat.' "

She swung for the fences.

Poeppelman's first hit of the 2019 season was a three-run homer to straightaway center and it capped a six-run inning as Minster broke open a close game with Celina for an 8-2 victory Tuesday at Jim Hoess Field.

"Celina's a great team," Hemmelgarn said. "They're going to win a lot of games this year. They've got outstanding pitching. We stayed patient and it took one big inning to give us the boost we needed. We knew it would be a battle tonight."

Celina pitchers Emily Keith (4 2/3 innings) and Maddy Luebke (2 1/3 innings) were sharp for the most part on Tuesday. The defense was not sharp, committing six errors - including two in the fifth. None of the eight runs allowed by Keith were earned.

"I don't feel like the score's indicative of what we actually did today," Celina coach Nicole Driggs said. "I feel like all the defensive breakdowns in that one inning really hurt us. I think the ERA of (Keith) was good today. We just have to clean all this up. We have some girls in new positions. I understand that, but we've asked them to grow up fast.

"(Minster) is a MAC-championship team and they would compete for a WBL championship if they were in our league as well," Driggs added. "This game shows us where we're at and what we need to work on."

In Minster's opening at-bat, two-hitter Karly Richard got aboard on an outfield error. She headed to third on the play and would have been thrown out had the ball not been dropped. Taylor Homan smoked Keith's next offering off the fence in center for an RBI double.

In the away third, Emily Stubbs hit a leadoff single for Minster and made it to second as the ball was misplayed in the outfield. Stubbs worked her way to third on a fielder's choice and then Homan made it 2-0 with her second RBI of the game, an infield single.

Poeppelman, a first team All-MAC pitcher last year, had little trouble shutting down the Celina offense for three innings. The Bulldogs did a little damage after, though.

In the fourth, Celina's Gracie Chilcoat connected for a base hit with two outs, Sydney Lehman drew a walk and Karissa Frederick made the score 2-1 with an RBI single.

That score did not hold for long, however.

In Minster's fifth-inning at-bat, Danielle Barhorst reached on an error with one out and later advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Stubbs. Then Richard slapped an RBI single to right. Richard stole second and scored when Taylor Homan's pop fly was dropped in the outfield. Kaitlyn Wolf and Laney Hemmelgarn had back-to-back hits and then Poeppelman rocked her shot to center.

"She doesn't know this, but had there not been two outs she was bunting that round," Hemmelgarn said. "I guess I am glad there were two outs because she swung away and that was a great hit."

In Celina's sixth-inning at-bat, Maddy Luebke and Lehman had hits to start the inning. Frederick's second single of the night plated Luebke for Celina's final run.

Poeppelman threw a complete game for Minster, allowing six hits while striking out seven, walking one and hitting two.

"We came off a St. Henry pitcher last night and we didn't adjust well to a faster pitcher tonight," Driggs said. "Offensively, I was just ready for that breakout, where we would start connecting, score a bunch of runs and have that big inning. We did not have that, but we did chip away. We were able to take some off-the-plate pitches to the opposite field and work that angle. We were trying to produce and we got two runs on the board."

Homan and Hemmelgarn each had two hits for the Wildcats (2-0).

Frederick and Luebke both had multiple-hit games for the Bulldogs (1-1).