By RICHIE HALL
CARMEL – The Shamrocks kept their bats going Wednesday night, as the Westfield softball team improved to 2-0 with a 9-5 win over Carmel at the Greyhounds’ Cherry Tree Softball Complex.
The game was close for the first two innings before the ‘Rocks got some big hits in the third and fourth innings. Westfield added two more runs in the seventh inning to clinch the game.
The Shamrocks scored their first run in the first inning when Makayla Watson got home on Chloe Tanner’s RBI groundout. Carmel freshman Ellie Goddard replicated that in the bottom of the first inning, scoring on Paxton Law’s RBI groundout.
It was Grace Feltz’s turn to get an RBI groundout in the top of the second. That resulted in a run for Avery Banas to put Westfield up 2-1. The Greyhounds answered when Katherine Warren got home after Emily Smith reached on a wild pitch.
The score was 2-2, but the Shamrocks changed that in the third inning with three runs. Cara Snedeker led off with a double and moved to third base on Ava Kainrath’s left field hit. Annika Lawrence came in to run for Kainrath, and both she and Snedeker were soon home after Tanner hit a left field line drive. Sofia Easterhaus later doubled Tanner home.
“Like last night, we did it again tonight,” said Westfield coach Brian Revercomb. “We made a lot of adjustments at the plate. Hitters are starting to get some timing down.” The coach said it was “nice to see” that the Shamrocks hitters were making those adjustments on their own.
Carmel freshman Emily Goddard had two hits for the Greyhounds. (Julie Brown)
Jayden Kleiner hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third to score Goddard, bringing Carmel within 5-3. But the score was soon 7-3 in favor of Westfield: Snedeker got on base with a two-out single, then Kainrath hit a center field home run to bring everyone home.
“Ava worked really hard in the offseason,” said Revercomb. “She’s stronger. She’s a little faster. Just going to be a really key player for us this year.”
Mia Fleming helped keep the Greyhounds in the game with a two-RBI single in the fifth inning that scored Kleiner and Goddard. But the ‘Rocks got those runs back in the seventh inning. Easterhaus hit a bunt single to score Tanner, then freshman Sydney Jordan’s line drive brought in Grace Fanelli, who earlier hit a double.
Snedeker, Kainrath, Tanner and Easterhaus all finished with two hits. Shea Vohs pitched five innings for the win, tossing four strikeouts.
“I thought she did a great job,” said Revercomb. “Another kid that worked really hard in the offseason. Picked up about three or four miles an hour on her pitches overall.”
Goddard finished with two hits, including a double. Chelsea Bennett struck out four in four innings.
“I think our pitchers did what they needed to do,” said first-year Carmel coach Stephanie Kleiner. “We needed a few other things to fall our way and they just didn’t. We need to string more hits together to be more effective offensively.”
The Greyhounds are a young team this year, with Goddard and Grace Sharp playing varsity as freshman. Avery Cline is a sophomore, as are pitchers Bennett and Smith, neither of whom played last year because of injuries.
“So, this is their first time playing high school ball,” said Kleiner. They are doing great. They’re leading us on the mound.”
Westfield hosts North Central on Friday. Carmel is 0-2 and hosts Plainfield on Monday.