Center Grove’s Kynadee Warner steals second base before Whiteland’s Emma Piercy can make the tag during Tuesday’s game.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
Speed kills, and Center Grove’s softball team indeed used it to deadly effect in its season opener on Tuesday.
Applying non-stop pressure with their aggressive style on the basepaths, the Class 4A No. 2 Trojans blew the game open with a seven-run second inning that proved to be the difference a 9-2 victory over visiting Whiteland.
“It’s exactly the type of team I want, and I think it’s the team we have,” Center Grove coach Alyssa Coleman said. “All of them have to keep pressing on the gas. … I love where we’re at.”
The Trojans’ big inning got started with a three-run throwing error on a Mae Munson bunt. Hayden Baird and Samantha Bruce both scored on the play, with Munson coming all the way around to home plate behind them. After Hannah Haberstroh and Kynadee Warner drew back-to-back walks, Riley Janda pushed both around with a triple to center field. Ashlynn Wolff followed with an RBI three-bagger of her own and then scored on a Payton Shimansky sacrifice fly, pushing the score to 7-0.
Whiteland got two runs back in the third when Josslyn Harbert and Kiley Sullivan scored on a Maddy Myers double, but Center Grove hurler Riley Henson avoided greater damage when Warner made a diving snow-cone catch along the right-field line to rob the Warriors’ Halle Nett of extra bases and an RBI.
Sullivan then found herself in serious trouble in the bottom of the frame when the Trojans loaded the bases with one out, but the sophomore induced a force out at home and a flyout to left to keep the Warriors within range.
The margin grew to 8-2 in the fourth when Wolff singled, took second on a passed ball, advanced to third on a deep flyout by Shimansky and scored on a Sydney Herrmann sacrifice fly. Center Grove then used its speed to add another run in the fifth when Haberstroh singled, took two bases on a bunt single by Warner and then scored when the throw to third got away.
“Always being aggressive,” said Haberstroh, who finished the day 3 for 3 with a walk, two runs scored and a pair of stolen bases. “Just going to push the bases as hard as we can until we can’t.”
The seven-run cushion was more than enough for Henson, who scattered three hits and a walk across five innings of work while striking out nine. Freshman Aiyana Keown pitched two scoreless innings of relief to finish it off.
“She’s just happy,” Coleman said of Henson. “She’s happy, and that makes players better. … She just looks like she knows that she’s in control and capable of what she is on the mound, and I’m excited to see where she goes this year.”
Both pitchers escaped trouble in the first inning, with Henson getting out of a two-on, one-out jam in the top of the frame and Sullivan stranding runners on second and third.
Though her team dropped its 2023 debut, first-year Whiteland coach Harley Roller saw plenty to build on.
“This is a great foundational first game,” she said. “Sully worked through some difficult counts with some great hitters, and our defense held up. Josslyn in the outfield, coming in clutch, and Ava Smith, who’s not traditionally an outfielder but came in clutch for us out there making some great catches — and some timely hitting, even, for us on the offensive side.”
Wolff had a pair of hits for the Trojans, who are back in action this evening at Zionsville. Whiteland hosts Edinburgh on Thursday.
