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Celina's Carly Hathaway holds up the ball after tagging out St. Henry's Rya Buschur trying to steal third on Monday.
ST. HENRY - Celina's bats warmed up after a few innings, and St. Henry's defense did the Bulldogs a few favors along the way.
Celina took the lead in the fourth and added on from there on the way to a 10-6 win in the softball season opener at the Wally Post Athletic Complex on Monday.
"In ways, we played a complete game, mentally as well as physically," Celina coach Jason Tribolet said. "I really liked that they battled. We went down 1-0, and I told them, in years past, we might've buckled and said, 'Game's over, let's go.' "
Celina (1-0) mustered just one hit against Redskins ace Carlee Rethman in the first two innings while Rethman hit an early RBI double, but Paige Kuehne led off the third with a home run to tie the game. Colbie Kinney added a double on a misplayed pop fly and went to third on a wild pitch, but Rethman struck out the next two batters to strand her there.
St. Henry (0-1) had a chance to answer in the bottom of the third, with Rya Buschur working a one-out walk and stealing second base, but she was thrown out trying to steal third a moment later. Lauren Thieman walked and Rethman singled, but Kuehne got a grounder to escape unscathed.
Hailey Shaffer led off the fourth with a drive to the right field off the glove of St. Henry's Alexis Buschur, and after a strikeout and a walk, Carly Hathaway hit another pop fly that fell between three fielders, reaching second as Shaffer scored to put the Bulldogs ahead.
"It's tough when we've got a pitcher like Carlee who does so much in the circle, and we don't have a competent defense behind her," St. Henry coach Ashley Knapke said. "We have a lot of inexperience, and it shows. We can only learn from here, really. Inexperience, and we just need some girls to step up and fill that leadership role."
Rethman induced a lineout and got Paige Hart to swing at strike three, but the pitch got away from catcher Kennedy Wendel, who then threw high to first base as a run scored. Kinney hit an RBI single before Rethman stopped the bleeding with Celina up 4-1.
In the fifth, Payton Bertke walked and Shaffer hit a homer to left-center. Two more walks and an error loaded the bases before Kinney hit a ground ball off the glove of third baseman Leah Lefeld, but Lefeld made a diving tag on Hathaway to get St. Henry out of the inning without further damage.
"We were starting to attack up in the zone, and we always try to teach them, 'If it's above our hands, we've got to let it go,' because all we're going to do is pop that up," Tribolet said. "We've been working on that in the CAPT building, because we've been indoors a lot, but that's been a stressor. I could tell in some instances today, we got our hands level to the ball instead of up under it to pop it up. So, the work's paying off."
Rethman singled in a run in the bottom of the fifth and ceded the circle to Jalynn Everman for the sixth, but Celina kept getting hits. Sarah Giesige led off with a deep drive over the head of Alexis Buschur in right for a triple, then scored on a failed fielder's choice at home, and Shaffer, Samantha Jenkins and Lucy Piper slapped singles before Hathaway hit a sacrifice fly to make it 10-2.
St. Henry's Lauren Thieman tries to beat the throw to first against Celina on Monday.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Redskins got an RBI single and Lauren Thieman hit a drive over the fence in left-center with two runners on, but an over-eager teammate touched her before she crossed the plate, and she was automatically called out to end the inning and keep Celina up 10-5.
"I've got to put that on me," coach Knapke said. "That's something that I didn't really think I would have to go over, but obviously we need to talk about it."
St. Henry got one more run back in the seventh on a wild pitch before Jenkins, on in relief of Kuehne, struck out the last two batters to end it.
Kinney, Shaffer and Piper had two hits each for Celina. Rethman struck out 10 batters and went 3-for-4 at the plate, while Mya Knapke and Olivia Gast added two hits apiece.
Celina returns home today to face Minster at 5:30 p.m., while St. Henry travels to Shawnee on Thursday.
