Prep softball: Redettes take duel from Trojans
· Yahoo Sports
CENTERVILLE — If Kaylee Davis didn't take care of the Fairfield batters on Tuesday, Payden Hoffman did.
While the Centerville junior pitcher racked up nine strikeouts over seven innings, not every Fairfield batter went down without making contact. The Trojans put the ball in play 12 times during the contest with four balls headed towards Hoffman.
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The Centerville shortstop turned the four balls hit in her direction into five Fairfield outs, including all three outs in the second inning of Centerville's 2-0 non-conference win. After doubling and scoring the second of Redette run of the opening inning, Hoffman doubled off Haylee Eklund after snagging a line drive off the bat of Ireland Cranston preventing the Trojans from having an immediate response.
"That double in the opening inning got us rolling," Hoffman said. "I've always wanted to get an early strike in an at-bat, so I went for it. Getting the double play, with a great stretch at first by Taya (Belloma), was great for us."
Davis struck up the first two Trojan batters of the game, setting the tone for a tough night for Fairfield's offense. After getting the big plays from Hoffman in the second inning, Davis came back to strike out the side in the third while carrying a no-hitter into the fifth.
"It was pretty hot and Kaylee had to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated," Hoffman said of Davis. "She drank more water before the game and did a good job warming up. I knew she was going to have a good game after that."
Fairfield, meanwhile, never truly recovered after an high throw on an opening grounder to short by Erin Shinn prevented the Trojans (7-4) from getting the first out of the first inning. The error would ultimately lead to the only two runs of the game as Hoffman delivered a double, putting a pair of runners in scoring position with less than two outs.
Ava Pfannebecker grounded a ball back to Fairfield starting pitcher Leah Helmick, who fired to first for what should have been the final out of the inning. Instead, having recorded just the second out at first, Shinn beat the throw back to the plate to score Centerville's first run before Hoffman eventually came around on a wild pitch to Davis, giving the Redettes their 2-0 lead.
"We played pretty good defense. It's hard to make any bad comments about our defense except for that if we hadn't committed that first error, Centerville wouldn't have scored in that first inning," Fairfield head softball coach Bob Bradfield said. "You can't go back in time and see what would have happened without the error. We played pretty well. We don't have a great hitting team, we just sometimes take advantage of the other team giving up too many walks or committing some errors. If we don't get that, we're not going to score too many runs."
Centerville (9-3) played flawless defense behind Davis, recording nine straight outs after a lead-off walk in the second inning that was drawn by Emma Septer with the Trojans hitting just three balls into the outfield during the contest. Hoffman again had the back of her pitcher in the fifth after Eklund and Cranston connected on consecutive two-out hits, putting together Fairfield's best opportunity for a comeback fielding a sharp grounder off the bat of Kayla Morris and firing to first for the final out.
"Our defense is keeping us in every game and Kaylee is pitching great," Centerville head softball coach Alex Belloma said. "That's one thing that has been different this year. In previous years, we'd be the ones making the mistakes that other teams would capitalize on. Now, it's been a little bit the other way. We're taking advantage of opportunities and capitalizing on it."