NA skips past Lanesville

A long-standing joke around the softball diamond is that a swinging strikeout causes a stiff breeze to blow. Last Tuesday afternoon in Lanesville, there was a powerful wind, but it was undecided if it was because of all of the strikeouts or simply Mother Nature wrecking havoc on the softball teams from Lanesville and New Albany.
In all, 33 batters were retired via the whiff: 16 from New Albany, 17 from Lanesville.
Unfortunately for the home-standing Lady Eagles, there weren’t enough hits or runs to counter the strikeouts as the visitors held off a late rally to win in the blustery conditions, 5-2.
New Albany drew first blood with three runs in the top of the third and added one more in both the top of the fifth and sixth.
In the bottom of the sixth, Lanesville got on the board after New Albany switched pitchers.
Leslie Kaufer singled to break up the no-hitter, stole second and was sacrificed to third by Brittany Mix. Audrey Hess walked to put runners are first and third. Kaufer scored and Hess advanced to second when New Albany’s catcher overthrew the third baseman and zinged the ball into left field.
Brittany Bennett threw a wild pitch to move Hess to third, and she scored on a single to right by Katie Rothrock to make the score 5-2. Pitcher Allison Horton also singled, but Bennett fanned the next batter.
Neither club scored in the final inning.
“I think overall for the day we did a really good job. We came into this game just wanting to hang with them, and I thought we did extremely well,” said Lady Eagle coach Mary Geswein. “One of the girls said as she was coming off the field that we played as a team. I can’t ask for much more than the effort we put in today.”
Lanesville started two freshmen and subbed in three others, giving Geswein a glimmer of hope for the upcoming season.
“I had butterflies today at about 2:30, but after what I just saw, I’m feeling a lot better,” Lanesville’s coach said. “Horton did a good job pitching; Kaufer did a real good job behind the plate, and I think once we get a few more games under our belts, we’ll be OK.”
Horton struck out 16 batters for Lanesville.