EDWARDSVILLE – An early run and some great defensive plays helped Chatham Glenwood to a 3-0 win over Edwardsville Monday afternoon at the EHS softball field. The Tigers fell to 2-2 on the season with the loss, while the Titans went to 7-2 overall.
“They are good defensively,” said Tiger coach Lori Blade. “They are very solid as a program year in and year out and you expect that, but to get shut out, I'm a little disappointed here. On the bright side, Jordyn (Henricks) threw much better today; her pitch count got up and Megan (Gorniak) did a good job.”
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One thing that hurt the Tigers Monday was situations in the fourth and fifth innings when they had the bases loaded in both innings, with no one out in the fourth and one out in the fifth, and failed to score both times. “We just have to be able to relax in those situations and come through,” Blade said. “We did hit some ball hard; we had a couple where, if it's warmer, it's out (Monday's conditions were windy and chilly; the wind was blowing in most of the game with temperatures in the 40s).
“But that's how it goes early (in the season), but we did some good things – it's tough not to come through and give those pitchers some support.”
The Titans broke into the lead early when Olivia McClintock led off with a single and went to second on a Maya Black sacrifice and came home on a Carolyn Franke single to make it 1-0. In the second and third innings, the Titans managed to load the bases themselves, but Henricks came up with some big outs to keep the score 1-0.
In the fourth, Taryn Brown opened with a single, went to second when Emma Lewis reached on an error and Lauren Taplin loaded up the bases when she reached on a fielder's choice to third that Brown beat out. Brooke Webber then stepped up and hit a couple of balls down the line in left that just went foul before fouling out to the catcher. Brown was then forced at home when Kylee Myers grounded into a fielder's choice before Mackenzie Owens popped to short to end the threat.
In the fifth, the Tigers had another chance to when Henricks led off with a single before Anna Burke and Brown each had one-out singles to load the bases again before Titan pitcher Sydney Paulauskis-Lauher struck out Lewis and got Taplin to fly out to left to end the threat. Chatham then scored twice in the top of the sixth on RBI singles from Josie Long and Paulauskis-Lauher to up the lead to 3-0. Paulauskis-Lauher then put the Tigers down in the sixth and seventh to give Chatham the win.
Burke went 2-for-4 to lead EHS, while Henricks, Brown, Lewis, and Webber each had hits for the Tigers. Henricks took the loss, going 3.1 innings and striking out five while Gorniak went 3.2 innings and dismissed three by strikeout.
Edwardsville hosts Belleville West at 4:30 p.m. today in a Southwestern Conference game before heading to Belleville East for a 4:30 p.m. Thursday SWC clash.
