Softball Game of the Week: Mitchell to travel to West Washington with a shot at title
Since the beginning of this season, the Mitchell softball team has had its focus set on one goal: winning a conference championship.
The Bluejackets split the Patoka Lake Athletic Conference crown with West Washington in 2021, rising to the top after years spent near the bottom. In 2022, they wanted to prove it was no fluke.
Now, just two things stand between them doing that. With wins over West Washington and Perry Central, they’ll claim a share of the conference title once again.
Flashback: Mitchell softball team setting out to prove 2021 season's success was no fluke
Senators a strong opponent for Mitchell
When it comes to contenders in the PLAC, they don’t come tougher than West Washington. The Senators enters the week with a 2-0 record in the league including a 3-2 win over Springs Valley and a 9-0 win over Orleans, both at home. That same Springs Valley squad recently took down Mitchell in extra innings.
Overall, the Senators are 12-3. Their only losses have come against Corydon Central, Brownstown Central and Floyd Central, all bigger schools and the first two were only 2-0 road losses. Their big non-conference wins include Madison, Edgewood, Trinity Lutheran and, most recently, Eastern Greene.
More: Mitchell softball ends skid with offensive explosion against Orleans
They’ve also been the main power in the conference recently which has made it so the name on the front of their jersey gives them an edge at times.
West Washington features premier pitcher
Mitchell’s recent losing streak, a five-game slide between April 26 and May 3, came due in large part to a slump at the plate. They managed just four runs between the five games.
One reason for that was because of the opposing pitching. Springs Valley, the team that started Mitchell’s slump, had one of the state’s top strikeout artists, Lily Hickman, in the circle. When the Bluejackets traveled to Bedford North Lawrence a couple of days later they were faced with Indiana State commit Annie Waggoner.
More: Mitchell, Springs Valley softball teams go head to head in Patoka Lake Conference classic
When Mitchell rolls into Campbellsburg on Monday, it’ll likely have to deal with another hurler of that quality.
Elliot Nance has had a tremendous season for the Senators as a sophomore, pitching to a 1.34 earned run average and nine wins in 88.2 innings as of Friday. Opposing batters were hitting just .161 against her and her strikeout mark of 150 was one of the best in the state.
If she’s in the circle on Monday, it will provide another test for the Bluejackets at the plate and if they can pass it, they could redeem whatever shortcomings that they had against Springs Valley or Bedford North Lawrence.
Senators no slouch at the plate
Not only is West Washington a lockdown team defensively, it can swing the bats with the best of them.
As of Friday, the Senators were hitting .341 as a team with an on-base percentage of .416 through 499 plate appearances. They’d scored 121 runs and picked up 146 hits, or roughly eight runs and 10 hits per game. They’ve also shown plenty of power, hitting 25 doubles and slugging 10 home runs, both marks above MaxPreps’ national average.
The big bopper to watch in the West Washington lineup is Lizzy Keltner. The junior first baseman led the Senators in a number of offensive categories through 15 games including batting average (.404), runs batted in (23), home runs (five) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.206).
More: Gracie Payton proves that size doesn't matter behind the plate for Mitchell softball
The Bluejackets and Senators will go head-to-head at 5 p.m. on Monday in Campbellsburg.
Contact Times-Mail sports reporter Auston Matricardi via e-mail at amatricardi@tmnews.com or on Twitter at @amatricardiTM.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Mitchell softball to travel to West Washington with a shot at title
