Published: April 30, 2008 03:01 pm            

Lady Eagles topple undefeated Crawfordsville

It was close.The Crawfordsville Athenians had runners on first and second with one out, and were trailing the Zionsville Lady Eagles by one in the top of seventh. Representative of the entire game for the Eagles, junior pitcher Sarah Seward retired the next three batters, two by strikeout, and Zionsville held onto win 4-3.

It was the first loss of the season for the Lady Athenians.

For Zionsville it was a game of comebacks. The Eagles defense surrendered a pair of runs in the top of the first, but in the bottom of the first Zionsville’s offense scored two runs and tied up the game.

Then in the second inning, the Athenians’ second basemen Ariel Hinton scored, giving Crawfordsville the lead.

Zionsville responded in the third, though.

Freshman Erin Dixon stood on first after a single when junior Lindsey Westrick stepped up and belted a single of her own. The Athenians fielded the ball poorly, and Westrick ended up standing on third base after taking two bases on a throwing error. Dixon scored and Westrick would later score after another single — this time by junior Shelby Day.

Westrick served up her own comeback Friday night. She had struggled most of the season and she busted out of her slump in a big way. Westrick went 2-for-3 in the game, scoring twice with a pair of RBIs.

“She defiantly came out tonight,” Zionsville Head Coach Amy Beers said. “We have just been working with her all week, and she just picked the right pitches and had two really big hits for us.”

Seward had to complete multiple comebacks the entire game. In five of the seven innings she had runners on base with fewer than two outs on the scoreboard. Crawfordsville stranded 10 base runners during the game, as Seward escaped from dangerous situations time and time again.

“(Seward) did a nice job just coming back after the first two innings because that could have really gotten to a pitcher. She did a nice job staying in there and figuring out where she needed to put the ball,” Beers said.

The Lady Eagles return to action at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, when they travel to Western Boone for a heated intra-county matchup.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.