By Ryan Hines
rhines@dailystandard.com The Celina softball team appears ready for the start of the Western Buckeye League season after posting an 11-1 win over Fort Recovery on Monday at Bill Feth diamond.
The Bulldogs are 6-0 and have recorded five of those wins in rule-rule fashion, including Monday's nonconference affair that saw Celina's offense stay hot with the pitching stellar as always.
"The thing that's really nice about the start that we've gotten off to is that we've done it all as a team because different people are stepping up for us on offense and defense," said Celina head coach Nicole Driggs. "Our girls are ready for the challenge that will be ahead in the WBL. We've done everything that we've needed to do up to this point and now we just have to carry it over to the league season."
Celina pounded out 12 hits by seven different players while the pitching combination of Laura Homan and Melanie Heyne kept the Indians offense quiet.
Amy Harner had the big day at the plate for the Bulldogs with a 3-for-3 performance with two runs scored and a triple that hit the base of the fence in the air. Katie Williams and Allison Braun also added a pair of hits while Heyne scored four runs while showing some aggressive baserunning. "We want to be aggressive on the basepaths every time that we step on the diamond because we have some strong athletes that we can take advantage of," said Driggs. "We've had a lot of girls contribute offensively for us and today was no different. I feel comfortable with all of the girls up at the plate."
Homan started the game for the Bulldogs and went the first four innings allowing an unearned run on four hits with seven strikeouts.
Driggs, in an effort to get Heyne some work before today's WBL opener against St. Marys, brought in the Celina ace to finish the game in the fifth inning and she fanned all three batters she faced.
"Melanie hasn't got a lot of work in a while so we decided to bring her in to get her some work before we start playing in the WBL," said Driggs. "Laura did a great job again for us and our pitching has been good all season long. Our pitchers are starting to hit their spots and they're very tough to hit when they can hit their spots."
Williams' second hit of the game triggering the run-rule in the bottom of the fifth inning. |
