ARCANUM – Arcanum saw its winning streak snapped on Saturday before rebounding to split a doubleheader with Dixie.
On a picture perfect day, sophomore pitcher Celeste Runnels of Dixie struck out 12 Trojans and only gave up two hits to upend once-beaten Arcanum 4-2 in game one of a doubleheader.
Runnels and her counterpart Elle Siculan of Arcanum made opposing batters look sick at the plate as no one dented the scoreboard in the first four innings of action.
The fifth inning brought in the first two and only runs of the game for the 15-1 Trojans of Coach Rick Stone. Cassidy Clark got things going with a single and stole second. Abby Ross got on by the walk route, and Hannah Weaver plated both runners to give Arcanum the two-run advantage going into the sixth inning.
Dixie countered in the sixth inning with a bunt hit by Cheyenne Johnson. She then advanced on a fly out and a ground out and scored on a Runnel’s RBI single to cut the deficit in half heading into the bottom of the sixth inning.
Arcanum was shut down by Runnel’s arsenal with two strikeouts and only Shelby Howard getting a base knock and McKenzie Sharitts getting a walk.
The seventh inning proved to be the undoing of the Trojans’ winning streak as they started out in great fashion by shutting the Greyhounds down by getting the first two outs in the inning by a pop out to first by Haley Parrish and a strike out by Haley Woolery.
However, the Greyhounds were not to be outdone by a serious of three consecutive hits consisting of a single, double and the all-important hit by Amara Wylie for a two-run advantage going into the bottom of the seventh.
In the bottom half of the inning Runnels got Arcanum out in order to finish the first game on a unhappy note for the Trojans.
“We didn’t play well with too many strikeouts for a total of 12,” Coach Stone said. “We did not hit the ball and let the ball get in the strike zone. However, on the positive side Hannah Weaver came to play as she had our only two RBIs and she was filling in for (Abbie) Bruns, who was out on a recruiting visit. Our timing was off, and we must keep the ball in play against a quality pitcher like Runnels,” Coach Stone said.
The second game started off with two straight singles by Wylie and Holly Flach for the Hounds and later Wylie scored on a single by power hitter Mariah Harlow.
Arcanum came back and solved the Runnels riddle by starting off a double and single by sophomore pitcher Siculan and Loganne Stone. Howard followed things up with a base hit and another walk to Sharitts plated three runs for the opportunistic Trojans for a 3-1 advantage.
The second inning saw Dixie go down quickly in order while Arcanum plated two more runs highlighted by base hits by Siculan and Kinney, who knocked in both RBIs with a slicing double.
The third inning saw Dixie manufacture a run by Runnels helping out her own cause with a two-bagger for their lone run of the inning.
Arcanum then exploded in the third inning by sending 10 batters to the plate. Clark lead off the pyrotechnics by rapping a single, stealing a base followed by Weaver, who kept things going with a single and a RBI. Loganne Stone got in on the fun with a single RBI and Kinney really spiced up the canto by knocking in two RBIs with a triple and then later scoring on a three-bagger by Kaitlyn Zell.
Dixie again in the fourth inning was shut out by the stellar pitching of sophomore Siculan by popping out twice and striking out to advance to the bottom of the fourth inning.
The fourth inning saw a new pitcher in for the Hounds to try to stem the tide. Kinney got another RBI and Howard coming through with a walk along with Sharitts scoring on a wild pitch, which plated the last run to make the score read 14-2 going to the top of the fifth inning where Dixie needed at least three runs from being run ruled.
Dixie did manage to get three runs by advancing runners with Wylie getting one RBI and Woolery getting the other two RBIs.
The bottom of the fifth inning the Trojans end the game early by getting another two-bagger by Weaver and then finishing things up by getting a sacrifice fly by Loganne Stone to pound the Hounds into submission at 16-5.
“I was very elated by this win as we made adjustments and got our sticks in gear with 15 hits,” Coach Stone said. “I was most pleased with Siculan, Stone, Kinney and Weaver, who had three hits apiece. On the RBI count we had Stone with five RBIs and Kinney with four. Now we are 16-2, 7-0 (in the CCC) and we look forward to playing Covington, who is also undefeated in the conference at our place this Tuesday coming up. I am very pleased with our stellar defense as we only had two errors the whole game, and we all were aggressive at the plate. The four seniors on the team really stepped it up the second time around against the same pitcher we faced in the first game.”
