MTZ softball wins five of seven games last week

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

The Mt. Zion softball team won five games last week out of the seven games they played. Their lone two losses came against Marion and Olympia in the Mt. Zion softball tournament.

Against Olympia, Dakota Harrison got the start on the mound for the Braves. Harrison struck two of her first three batters and got a one, two, three first inning to start the game.

The Braves’ offense suffered two strikeouts to begin the bottom of the first inning against Spartans’ ace Danika Frazier. Kayla Schnippel hit a ball to the left-field gap for a single. Harrison then stepped to the plate and hit a two-run home run over the left-centerfield wall to give the Braves a 2-0 lead.

The Spartans tied the game in the top of the second at 2-2. Kennedy Highley hit a lead off single for the Braves and then advanced to second on a Lauren Waller sacrifice bunt. Highley then stole third base and went straight to home plate after a catcher throwing error to give the Braves a 3-2 lead.

The Spartans tied the game in the top of the third inning. The Braves scored four runs in that inning which started when Karlie Teel got on base with a lead off walk. Bender then also got on with a walk. Audri Johnson stepped to the plate with two outs and hit a three-run homerun over the centerfield wall to give the Braves a 6-3 lead.

Highley followed Johnson with a single and then Waller brought her home on an RBI double to give the Braves a 7-3 lead heading into the fourth inning.

The Spartans began with back to back hitters getting on with singles. Jordyn Turner brought both runners home with a two-rbi single to cut the Braves lead to 7-5. Frazier then stepped to the plate to hit a three-run home run to give the Spartans an 8-7 lead. The Spartans finished with a 9-7 win.

“We exposed a couple different areas in our game,” Head coach Greg Blakey said. “We did not find the ball well offensively, we left a ton of runners on base and we didn’t defend the bunt well. The positives were we scored some runs against some really good teams.”

The Braves improved to 13-7 overall and 5-1 in conference play. The Braves this week will face Pleasant Plains, Eisenhower and Lincoln.