If there's one thing Edwardsville's softball team is good at, it's taking advantage of other team's mistakes, no matter how small.
Collinsville didn't make many mistakes in their Southwestern Conference game at Edwardsville's Sports Complex Tuesday afternoon, but when they did, the Tigers made the Kahoks pay dearly, scoring four times in the fourth and three times each in the fifth and sixth on their way to a 10-0, six-inning win.
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“It's what it is,” said Kahok coach Dan Toberin. “We made a couple of mistakes, gave them extra at-bats, and against a good team, you can't afford to do that. We didn't play that badly and we did look good at times, but we made a mistake and it opened up the floodgates.
“We have to play a complete game. We stayed with them in the first half of the game, but the mistakes we made came back to bite us.”
Collinsville's cause wasn't helped by some timely defensive plays by the Tigers (10-2 overall, 5-0 SWC). Starting pitching Kallen Loveless got off to a good start by striking out the first four batters she faced, then getting key double plays in the second and fourth innings to to stave off Kahok rallies. Thing of it was, the Kahoks managed to cut the heart out of a couple of Tiger rallies as well.
“We had some chances early,” said Tiger coach Lori Blade. “It took us a bit to get going, but we adjusted and once we got going, we hit the ball hard and kept it in play.
“Our defense was good today; getting a couple of double plays helped and Kallen threw well today too.”
The Tigers did have chances in the first and second innings, but a first-inning rally ended when McKenzie Marshall flew to left to end the inning and a second-inning opportunity went away when Halyi Green was picked off first. Edwardsville finally got to to Kahok (8-9 overall, 3-3 SWC) pitcher Catie Brombolich in the fourth when, with two out, Green reached on an error and Megan Radae doubled to put runners at second and third. Katelyn Bobrowski then singled in Green to give EHS first blood, and then Ari Arnold tripled in Radae and Bobrowski for two more runs before a throwing error attempting to get Arnold at third went into the fence, allowing Arnold to score.
In the fifth, Rachel Anderson opened by drawing a walk and went to third when Loveless singled. Sara Radae then attempted to sacrifice, but the throw got to first late, putting her on first, with Anderson scoring. Torrie Kruse then grounded to short, Loveless scoring, and Green doubled in Sara Radae for another run to put EHS up 7-0.
Arnold opened the sixth with a sharp double to right-center and Jordan Corby drew a walk to bring up Anderson, who unloaded a shot to the deepest part of the grounds for a three-run homer – her only hit of the game – to bring the game to an end.
Loveless went 2-for-3 to lead the Tiger attack, with Arnold going 1-for-2 with two RBIs, Anderson 1-for-1 with three walks and three RBIs, Kruse 1-for-3 with a RBI and Green 1-for-3 with a RBI. Becky Gibbs, Cassidy Smith, Sammi Buettner and Sydney Bost had hits for the Kahoks.
Loveless gave up four hits and no runs while striking out five to get the win; Brombolich went four-plus innings for the Kahoks and struck out two while giving up seven runs and five hits.
Edwardsville has three more tests this week; they travel to Belleville West in a makeup of a scheduled April 7 game that was rained out Thursday, then host Chatham-Glenwood in a doubleheader Friday evening, and with Edwardsville's prom also set for the weekend, Blade is expecting some challenges.
“We have a couple of good teams coming up this week, and with our prom coming too, we're going to face some good challenges,” Blade said.
