Morning Journal/Matt Morrison Salem center fielder Rollin Burton catches a fly ball Tuesday at West Branch.
Beloit West Division quickly moved on, defeating Eastern Buckeye Conference rival Salem 10-0 in five innings on Tuesday, despite making mistakes.
“I came out and didn’t make any mistakes.” West Branch coach Sis Woods said. “(Salem) made a lot of mistakes and we took advantage of them.”
Salem’s eight errors led to 10 earned runs for West Division, which finished 7-2 overall and 4-1 in EBC, but Salem fell to 2-7 and 1-3 in EBC. lowered.
West Branch was coming off a tough loss to Marlington on Monday and wanted to take the next step quickly.
“It’s a really big motivation booster.” Ellie Tucker, a freshman at West Branch, said: “We know that we can come back from a loss and still get a big win like this against our rivals.”
Tucker led the Warriors with two hits in his at-bat, including a third infield hit that gave the Warriors a 7–0 lead. Tucker had two runs scored, one RBI, and two stolen bases.
Josie Milliken had one hit, one RBI and two RBIs, and Sarah Schmidt had one hit, one RBI and one RBI. Clary McKay had one hit and two RBIs. Matty Hawk scored one goal.
McKay allowed three hits and had four strikeouts, giving the Warriors the victory.
West Branch is happy to be able to play the game without Mother Nature getting in the way.
“We missed seven games.” Mr. Woods said. “This week was great, so it looks like we’re going to have to put them in for the rest of the week.”
Salem tried to keep pace with the Warriors, but mistakes in the field of play quickly put the Quakers behind, trailing 3-0 in the first inning.
“We’re going to get back on the board and try to forget about this because that’s not how we play.” Said Salem coach Mike Thorpe. “The faster you play, the faster you can forget about this.”
Lauryn Burton, Vera Brandt and Menau each had one hit to lead the Quakers.
The starting pitcher for the Quakers was Emily Lewis, who allowed three hits, seven runs, four walks, and four strikeouts through three innings. Morgan Blaine pitched 1 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, three runs, three walks, and one strikeout.
West Branch hosts Minerva on Thursday and Salem hosts Alliance on Thursday.
S: 0-0-0-0-0– 0-3-8
WB: 3-0-5-1-1–10-5-0
