Garaway's power too much for Ridgewood

WEST LAFAYETTE - The Ridgewood softball team has struggled this season to close innings when they have two outs.

On Friday, against fifth-ranked Garaway, it hurt them again. In the top of the third inning, after Ridgewood catcher Sadie Wilson tagged Zoe Johnson out at home on a suicide squeeze, the Pirates scored four runs.

A three-run home run by Kaitlyn Stress opened the two-out scoring for the Pirates. Then Allison Luneborg followed with a solo home run.

Those two-out hits would come back to hurt the Generals as Garaway put together two more home runs in the fourth to defeat Ridgewood 7-0.

"A big nemesis for my pitchers has been with two outs all year so far," Shivers said. "For some reason, with two outs, something happens. It's been our Achilles heel."

The Generals had their chance to jump on Garaway early, though. Autumn Brown singled and stole second in the first inning, but with two outs they couldn't bring her around to score.

"That's a hard team to come back on," Shivers said. "We had an opportunity to get the lead, and we didn't get it. I thought we did swing the bats better this time around."

Sydney Zinkon came in to relieve Samantha Wilson in the fourth inning.

Wilson finished the day pitching three innings, giving up five runs, Zinkon finished with four innings pitched and gave up two earned runs.

But, despite the deficit, Shivers said he didn't see any quit in the girls' faces.

"I just told them you have to hit to win," Shiver said.

And right out of the gate Kayla Sharier, who had two singles on the day, singled to left field and then stole second.

"She had two hits today and she has been struggling, so that was good to see," Shivers said.

The Generals finally had a runner in scoring position with no outs, but three ground outs later Sharier was stranded at third. That was the best chance Ridgewood would get against the 21-1 Pirates.

"I keep stressing getting those timely hits and especially against good teams," Shivers said.

Ridgewood will travel to state-ranked Sandy Valley on Monday and then host Strasburg on Tuesday to begin the final week of the season.

"Our league is so tough that I think it prepares us for the tournament," Shivers said. "I feel like we can play with anybody, and I think we can make a run in the postseason."

cteaguerob@gannett.com

740-295-3442

Twitter: @cj_teague