Softball

By Steve Raymond

ET Sports Report

The first batter for both teams kind of set the tone for the rest of the game.

T-Town’s Summer Wall sent the fifth pitch of the contest sailing over the right-centerfield fence for a lead-off home run.

Effingham’s Raegan Boone lined a double down the leftfield line, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.

The Lady Shoes blasted two more round-trippers and kept adding to their lead, while the Lady Hearts struggled to push runs across the plate.

When the final out was recorded, Teutopolis had posted a 7-1 victory Monday afternoon at Effingham.

“That first home run was super exciting,” THS coach Crystal Tipton admitted. “It helped establish momentum for us, that’s for sure.”

“After giving up that home run, it looked like we were going to come right back and score,” Effingham coach Jerry Trigg added. “But then we didn’t. We kept battling to get back to even, but they just kept getting further away from us.”

The long ball was certainly a factor, especially for the Lady Shoes in the decisive fifth inning.

The Teutopolis Lady Shoes dropped a pair of close games Friday at the Newton Round Robin.

The Lady Shoes lost 5-4 to Champaign Central in the first game and then gave up three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to suffer a 3-2 setback to Freeburg in the second contest.

Against Champaign Central, the Lady Shoes trailed 4-2 and 5-3, but kept coming back.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Mallory Bloemer doubled and later scored on a groundout by Alyssa Tipton to get T-Town within 4-3.

Then in the seventh, trailing 5-3, THS got a lead-off single by Olivia Copple. She later scored on an RBI single by Malea Helmink, but the Lady Shoes couldn’t get the tying run across.

Bloemer had two hits in the game and Helmink drove in a pair. Tipton pitched all seven innings and took the loss.

Olivia Hemmen had a two-hit shutout going into the bottom of the seventh inning in the second game. But Freeburg combined a single, an error and a walk to load the bases. A wild pitch let in the first run, a single tied it and the winning run scampered home after another wild pitch.

The Lady Shoes scored single tallies in the second and third innings. CJ Apke drove in the second-inning run with a base hit and Helmink had a two-out RBI single in the third.

T-Town out-hit Freeburg 9-4, but left six runners stranded on base.

The Lady Shoes, now 11-12, will play Monday at Effingham.

The Teutopolis Lady Shoes traveled to Tolono Unity for a round-robin Saturday and dropped two games.

Big innings were the difference.

In the first game, Quincy Notre Dame scored nine runs in the second, en route to a 13-4 decision.

In the second contest, the host Lady Rockets scored five times in the opening inning and went on to post a 10-2 win.

Quincy Notre Dame combined six hits, two walks and an error to push nine runs across in the second and build an early 11-0 lead.

T-Town got an RBI single from Olivia Copple in the third, a run-scoring ground out by Malea Helmink in the fourth and a two-run single by Helmink in the fifth.

Olivia Hemmen pitched the first two innings and took the loss.

After the five-run first inning, Tolono was never threatened in the second game. The Lady Rockets also had a three-run fourth.

Teutopolis scored single tallies in the second and fifth. Kayleigh Zerrusen had an RBI double in the second and the fifth-inning run scored on an error.

Alyssa Tipton pitched the first three innings and had the loss.

The Lady Shoes, now 11-9, will play Monday at South Central.

Taegan Webster belted two homers and drove in five runs, helping South Central defeat Teutopolis, 9-6, at home Monday afternoon.

The Lady Shoes had a 4-2 lead when South Central came to bat in the bottom of the fifth inning. But Webster delivered a two-run blast that inning and then added a three-run shot in a four-run seventh that put the Lady Cougars on top to stay.

South Central grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first, but the Lady Shoes scored a single tally in the third and added three more runs in the fourth. Chloe Hoene, who had three hits for T-Town, had an RBI single in the fourth, while the other two runs scored on an error and a ground out by Malea Helmink.

Olivia Hemmen took the loss. She pitched 5.1 innings, allowing nine hits and eight runs.

The Lady Shoes, now 11-10, will play at home today (Tuesday) against Tuscola.

The Teutopolis Lady Shoes scored four runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game and then pushed across two more in the eighth to rally for a 7-5 victory Thursday at Windsor/Stew-Stras.

The Lady Hatchets had a seemingly comfortable 5-1 lead when T-Town came to bat in the top of the seventh. Kayleigh Zerrusen singled and CJ Apke was hit by a pitch to get the comeback started. With one out, Mallory Bloemer singled to bring in one run and Olivia Copple followed with another RBI single to cut the deficit to two runs. A WSS error allowed two more runs to score and tie the game.

In the eighth, Hemmen had a lead-off single, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball by Apke. Bloemer then delivered an RBI double to account for the final run.

The Lady Hatchets got a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth, but the final batter struck out.

Alyssa Tipton pitched all eight innings for THS. She allowed seven hits and five runs, while walking two and striking out 11.

The Lady Shoes improved to 11-7 on the season. They were scheduled to play today (Friday) at home against Flora and then travel to Unity on Saturday.