Lady Patriots earn WIC wins over Clovers, Tiger Cubs
The Owen Valley varsity softball team went 2-1 on the week, earning conference wins over Cloverdale and Greencastle and falling to Class 1A, third-ranked Clay City.
On Tuesday, the Patriots defeated Cloverdale 8-1.
The two teams were tied going into the bottom of the third when Taylor Monroe singled on a fly ball to right field, stole second and third and scored on a single to left field by Hailey Beuerlein. Andi Burkhart was next up, singling on a fly ball to left. Ashlyn Boltinghouse walked, loading the bases. Abby McDonald ground out, earning an RBI when Beuerlein scored. Ludy Dyer hit a pop fly and reached on an error by the second baseman, scoring Burkhart and Boltinghouse.Up next, Kalyn Greene hit a pop fly and reached on an error. With two on and two out, Taylor York hit a pop fly and reached on an error, scoring Dyer and Greene for the fifth and sixth run of the frame.
Owen Valley added one run each in the fourth and the fifth and Cloverdale tallied their only run of the game in the sixth for the 8-1 final score.
OV's offense was led by Dyer with two hits, followed by McDonald with a double and two RBI. York, Monroe, Beuerline, Burkhart and Boltinghouse each had a single in the game with Monroe and Beuerline adding RBI.
McDonald went the distance for the Lady Patriots. She threw seven innings, and allowed just one run on eight hits while walking two and striking out seven.
On Wednesday, the Patriots traveled to Greencastle where they took down the Tiger Cubs, 8-4.
OV got down to business early, scoring two runs in the top of the first. The Patriots made it 5-0 in the top of the fourth. The Tiger Cubs scored three runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to make it 5-3. each team added a run in the sixth for a 6-4 score. The Patriots put the game away in the seventh with two more runs and closed out the bottom of the seventh, going three up, three down.
Beuerlein led the Patriot offense with three hits, including a double and three RBI, with Andi Burkart also contributing three hits and an RBI. Taylor Monroe finished with two hits, including a triple and an RBI, and Kalyn Greene had two hits. Lucy Dyer finished with a double and Taylor York had an RBI.
Abby McDonald pitched a complete game, and allowed four runs (three earned) on ten hits while striking out two.
In the third game in just three days, OV hosted the Class 1A, third-ranked Clay City Eels (12-3). The Patriots finished with four hits on the day, but couldn't string anything together when they had runners aboard. York, Burkhart, Boltinghouse and Dyer each had a single.
McDonald went the distance again, allowing just four runs (all earned) on nine hits while walking zero and striking out one.
"All in all it was a pretty good week for us. We took two out of three and two of those were conference games," OV varsity softball coach Brian Greene said. "Clay City is a good team and their pitcher was fantastic but it was good for us to compete with them. Cloverdale sent a tough pitcher out there too and Greencastle had some hits. I thought our girls were able to put together tough at-bats in the Cloverdale and Greencastle games and really played pretty well on defense all week."
"Hailey Beuerlein and Andi Burkhart were great versus Greencastle, they each had three hits and HB had three RBI. Lucy Dyer came up with a huge double late in the game," Coach Greene added. "Abby was tough on all three teams this week. She had season-high strikeouts versus Cloverdale. I really thought our defense played very well with York, Bolt and Anya getting more comfortable in the outfield and our infield was pretty sharp too. I also thought we ran the bases really well this week. The point is we are getting better and hopefully we will be peaking by the sectional time."
The Lady Patriots (10-2) will travel to Shakamak on Monday, May 1 for a 5 p.m. contest with the host Lakers (1-10). On Tuesday, OV will travel to North Putnam (9-5) for another Western Indiana Conference showdown, beginning at 5 p.m.
The following week, OV will travel to Eastern Greene to take on the host Thunderbirds (6-4) on Monday evening, May 9 at 5:30 p.m. On Tuesday, May 10, the Patriots travel to Edgewood to take on the host Mustangs (5-9) in a WIC rivalry contest at 5:30 p.m. The third game of the week will be at home against Indian Creek (2-9) at 5:30 p.m.
The IHSAA state tournament draw was held Sunday evening. This year's bracket is eerily similar to last year's sectional draw. The Lady Patriots will host Sectional 28 and will play West Vigo in the first game of the sectional. The winner of that game will play Edgewood with the winner of that contest to play in the final. In the bottom of the bracket, Northview takes on Indian Creek with the winner set to play Brown County. The winner of that contest will also play in the final. Dates and times will be announced at a later date.
This article originally appeared on Evening World: Lady Patriots earn WIC wins over Clovers, Tiger Cubs
