By RICHIE HALL
Reporter Sports Editor
One swing kept changing the lead during Friday’s Hamilton Southeastern-Carmel softball game.
The Greyhounds got on the board first, with three runs in the top of the third inning. The Royals answered that with four runs in the bottom of the third. After that, Southeastern stayed ahead and eventually won 7-3, improving its record to 2-0 for the season.
Carmel loaded the bases with one out in the third; Megan Nichols started things off with a double. A few plays later, Maddie Searles stepped up and hit a base-clearing double to get all three Greyhounds home. Nichols was first, followed by Ella Greenawald and Stormy Kotzelnick.
The Royals came back right away, scoring their first run on three straight singles. Nicole Dillow got on first, then moved to third on a hit by Abby Taylor. Lillian Leiner then smacked a ball to right field to get Dillow home.
That brought Jordan Rager up to the plate, and she cracked a home run to left field to score three runs. Just like that, it was 4-3 HSE. Southeastern coach David Cook liked how his team responded.
“We fell behind 3-nothing, and we scored four in the bottom and really answered the bell there,” said Cook. “It was good.”
The Royals added another run in the fifth. Dillow tripled into center field, then soon headed home off a Taylor double. In the seventh inning, Leiner hit a triple to score two runs, with Holly Hosfield and Taylor getting home.
“I thought it was a good performance up and down the lineup,” said Cook. “We had 11 hits and had some production out of everybody.”
In all, five different Southeastern players had two hits. Meanwhile, Jaylah Guilliam pitched a complete game, giving up only three hits.
Searles totaled two RBIs for Carmel.
“It’s our second game,” said ‘Hounds coach Ginger Trotter. “Defensively we tightened it up a little bit tonight. Offensively we had a couple good innings, but we need to be able to put some runs on the board in more than one inning, and especially against a good team like this. So we’ve got some things to work on, but overall I think we’re improving.”
The Greyhounds play their first home game of the season Monday, welcoming Westfield to the Hazel Dell Elementary softball field. The Royals are back in action Tuesday, going on the road for the first time this season. Southeastern plays Avon in its Hoosier Crossroads Conference opener.
Southeastern 7, Carmel 3
Carmel AB R H RBI
Stormy Kotzelnick 2 1 0 0
Maddie Searles 3 0 1 2
Ariana Zdobylak 1 0 0 0
Sarah Goddard 3 0 1 0
Darby Roberts 2 0 0 0
Brooke Bair 2 0 0 0
Sophia Derziotis 2 0 0 0
Hannah Jungblut 1 0 0 0
Megan Nichols 3 1 1 0
Ella Greenawald 1 1 0 0
Sydney Fox 2 0 0 0
Totals 22 3 3 2
2B: Nichols, Searles. SB: Greenawald, Nichols. SAC: Roberts. HBP: Greenawald.
Carmel pitching IP R ER H
Searles 3 6 5 7
Sommer Edwards 3 1 1 3
Strikeouts: Searles 1, Edwards 1. Walks: Searles 1.
Southeastern AB R H RBI
Abby Taylor 3 2 2 1
Lillian Leiner 4 1 2 3
Jordan Rager 4 1 2 3
Libby Ratliff 3 0 2 0
Nicole Lang 3 0 0 0
Kaelin Wincek 3 0 0 0
Ahliza Moore 3 0 0 0
Abbey Willmann 3 0 1 0
Holly Hosfield 0 1 0 0
Nicole Dillow 3 2 2 0
Totals 29 7 11 7
HR: Rager. 3B: Leiner, Dillow. 2B: Taylor. SB: Taylor.
Southeastern pitching IP R ER H
Jaylah Guilliam 7 3 3 3
Strikeouts: Guilliam 4. Walks: Guilliam 2.
Score by innings
Carmel 003 000 0 – 3 3 0
Southeastern 004 102 x – 7 11 0
Hamilton Southeastern’s Jaylah Guilliam pitched a complete game for the Royals Friday against Carmel. Guilliam only allowed three hits while striking out four. (Richie Hall)
Carmel’s Megan Nichols hit a double and scored a run for the Greyhounds during the third inning of their Friday game with Hamilton Southeastern. (Richie Hall)