The hits keep coming for the Mechanicville softball team.
The Red Raiders piled up 19 base hits Wednesday in beating Schalmont, 15-5, to run their Colonial Council record to 6-0 and their overall mark to 9-0.
The offense came from the usual sources, as the Nos. 3 and 4 hitters, seniors Anna Arceneaux and Kelsey Hines, were a combined
8-for-9 with seven runs scored and seven RBI.
“I know we can hit,” said
Mechanicville coach Don Arceneaux, whose team scored four times before the Sabres came up for the first time. “We’ve got the horses. I just have to find where they all fit.”
Anna Arceneaux drove in five runs, her two-run single chasing home the first two runs of the game. She also belted a three-run home run in a seven-run third inning, and added a pair of singles in the later innings to finish 4-for-4.
Hines followed Arceneaux’s two-run single with a run-scoring double, added three singles and scored three times.
Anna Arceneaux wasn’t as sharp as she would have liked in the pitching circle, as Schalmont finished with nine hits.
“It was just one of those days. I just never really had it,” she said. “But the offense really picked us up. As far as everyone hitting in the same game, that’s probably the best game we’ve had.”
“Everybody has stepped up this year,” said Hines, pointing out that leadoff hitter Alysa Russell has missed the entire season after suffering a knee injury during basketball. “We all like to hit.”
As if the Red Raiders didn’t have enough offense, Taylor Hines made her first varsity start a memorable one. Batting behind her older sister, the eighth-grader went 5-for-5
with two doubles and five runs batted in.
“I knew she was a player,
and she could hit,” said Don Arceneaux. “She’s another good ballplayer.”
“Just what they needed, right?,” laughed first-year Schalmont coach Eric Lybrand. “They’re a machine, the way they hit.”
The Sabres also had good
approaches at the plate, never letting Anna Arceneaux retire the
side in order until the fourth
inning.
By then, the Red Raiders had a 15-4 lead, taking command when they sent 11 batters to the plate in the third.
“The Mechanicville game is one you circle every year,” said Lybrand. “It gives you a chance to see how you match up with the team that’s traditionally been the best in our league.
“I think we had some jitters in the first inning.”
Starting pitcher Katarina Miley issued four-pitch walks to the first two Mechanicville hitters in the game. Anna Arceneaux then hit a shot back up the middle that hit Miley in the left hip and caromed into right field. The Hines sisters both followed with RBI hits.
After giving up four runs, the Sabres had three consecutive one-out singles in their half of the first. The rally was short-circuited when Emily McLaughlin was called out at the plate on a close play.
“You never know,” said Lybrand of the missed early chance to score more runs. “But I told them after the game that I was most impressed by the way they kept swinging the bats.”
Schalmont, now 3-4 in the league, was coming off a tough 8-0 loss to Ichabod Crane.
The Sabres start a freshman
and five sophomores. Lybrand knows that there will be growing pains.
“We’ve been kind of hit and miss so far this season,” he said. “We gave up five unearned runs in our last game. Our defense let us down. We cut out the errors today, but we got too far behind.”
Center fielder Alexis Umholtz went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs and scored twice for the
Sabres. Both Liz Kuhlkin and
Lauren Mahar had two hits.
Lybrand cited the effort of leadoff hitter Erika Gogis in the seventh inning as part of the team’s willingness to battle until the end.
With her team down 11 runs, she worked a two-out walk — the only walk Anna Arceneaux issued — stole second base and scored when Umholtz beat out an infield hit.
“She just kept hustling,” said
Lybrand. “It didn’t matter what the score was.”
Mechanicville 437 100 0 — 15 19 3
Schalmont 103 000 1 — 5 9 0
Arceneaux and Malone; Miley, Maher (3) and Yodis.
Categories: -Sports-
