The Press-Dispatch

Press DisPatch Page 8 Thursday, May 11, 2023 SPENCER Continued from page 7 In the top of the third Char- ger second baseman Delaney Welchled off with a single for the Lady Chargers. She was followed on the base paths by center fielder Brailey Mills who singled and third base- man Taryn Fiscus received a walk to load the bases. Shortstop Karley Kavanagh singled to center to bring both Welch and Mills home. Catch- er Madelyn Fiscus then sin- gled bringing home the young- er Fiscus to make the score 4-0 in favor of Pike Central. With runners on first and sec- ond pitcher Williams smashed the first pitch offered to her over the center field fence for a home run, her third of the season. It extended the Lady Chargers lead to 7-0 at the mid- dle of the third inning. The Lady Chargers did not score in the fourth or fifth in- nings and only tallied one hit during that time. "I feel like we had no energy at all during the game. The dugout was dead and we just didn't look like we were having any fun," said Lady Charger Coach Dustin Traylor. "It appeared as if we were just going through the motions and that's no good right now," he added. Chloe Williams pitched for the Lady Chargers and kept the Lady Rebels scoreless through five innings, giving up only one hit and recording four strikeouts. Traylor comment- ed on his senior pitcher's per- formance, "Chloe had a good outing on the rubber and at the plate. She was throwing hard and challenging the hitters and that was good to see. She also hit that (home run) a ton." Pike Central gathered three more runs in the sixth inning as Welch led off with a walk and moved to third on a sin- gle by Mills. Taryn Fiscus hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Welch. Kavanaugh singled to right, which scored Mills. Ka- vanaugh scored three batters later as South Spencer's sec- ond baseman Skinner com- mitted an error on a ground- er by Williams. The top of the sixth ended with Pike Central up 10 -0. The Lady Rebels elimi- nated the shutout in the bot- tom of the sixth. A fter a pop- up to Kavanaugh for the first out, South Spencer laid down back-to-back bunts by Briley Burns and Emma Williams, putting runners at second and third. Pitcher Cecil grounded to short for the out as Burns scored from third. Neither Pike Central nor South Spen- cer scored in the seventh in- ning as the game ended 10 -1 in favor of Pike Central. Williams finished the game for Pike Central and took the win giving up one run on four hits, striking out six and re- linquishing only one base on balls. Cecil took the loss for South Spencer giving up 10 runs on 10 hits, striking out four, giving four free passes and hitting two batters. The Lady Chargers have had some problems recently on the defensive side of the ball, com- mitting five errors in the past two games, but played a error- less game against the Rebels. "Defensively we played really well against (South Spencer). They bunted a lot and put pres- sure on our defense and we handled that really well," said Traylor. The Lady Chargers face conference opponents Forest Park tonight at 5:30 and South Gibson at noon on Saturday. Both are away games for Pike Central. LOSS Continued from page 7 out. Madelyn Fiscus ground- ed to shortstop Taylor Mason, who committed an error, allow- ing Mills and Stilwell to score. Fiscus advanced to second on the error and was replaced by Haylie Fulcher on the bases as a courtesy runner. Alyna Sharp struck out for the second out of the inning before Taryn Fiscus ripped the ball to left field for a triple, scoring Fulcher. Williams re- ceived a walk to put runners at the corners. Unfortunatly, the Lady Chargers could not put them across the plate as Welch struck out to end the inning. Williams prevented the La- dy Wildcats from scoring again as she got three outs in the bottom of the sixth on two strikeouts and a ground out. The Lady Chargers unfortu- nately went three up/three down in the top of the seventh and fall to Mt. Vernon, 4-3, for only their second loss of the season and first conference defeat. The Lady Chargers accumu- lated only four hits across sev- en innings as Mt. Vernon pitch- er Salee took the win. She also recorded 11 strikeouts and two walks in the contest. "Salee pitched well, but we were not disciplined at the plate," said Traylor. He added, "We had a lot of hitting counts in our favor, but we were not swinging at good pitches and looked at way too many called third strikes!" Williams took the loss as she gave up five hits across six in- nings and recorded four strike- outs and five base on balls. On his pitcher's performance amid the loss, Traylor com- mented, "Chloe pitched well overall; they only had three hits that made it out of the in- field." His concern was more on how the runs were scored, "We gave them four unearned runs. We can't do that to good teams." The Lady Chargers have some important games coming up over the next week as they face North Posey and Gibson Southern, who currently rank first and second in the confer- ence. "We have a couple of big weeks coming up, very chal- lenging to say the least. But we can play with anyone and we will be up for the challenge," said Traylor. base knock that scored Bel- more to move Pike Central to within a run of Gibson South- ern at 2-1. Sophomore Albert White- head then stepped into the batter's box, with Sorgius on base and still two outs for the Chargers. Whitehead slapped a single to left centerfield for a base hit that sent Sorgius flying home on the play to tie the score at 2-2. The Chargers were unable to move Whitehead, and the in- ning ended with the score 2- 2, as the two PAC opponents headed into the third inning. Neither team could find a way to score in the third in- ning, but in the top of the fourth frame, the Titans plat- ed a run to take a slim 3-2 lead into the bottom of the fourth. As in the third inning, nei- ther team scored in the fifth in- ning, and the teams headed in- to the sixth inning with Gibson Southern holding a narrow 3-2 advantage over the Chargers. The visitors pushed a run across home plate in their half of the inning to give the even- tual winners a 4-2 lead after six innings. In the top of the seventh, the Titans again scored a sin- gle run to make the score 5 - 2, in favor of Gibson Southern, after six and one-half innings of conference baseball play— with the hosts coming to bat. Junior Jiles Mason brought the loud Pike Central crowd to its feet to open the bottom of the seventh inning with a base hit to give the Chargers life. Sophomore Noah Meece fol- lowed Mason to the plate with Mason on first and no outs. The guttysecond-year starter put good wood on the ball— but the ball was hit just three feet to the right of the Gibson Southern shortstop, senior Garett Reid, who cleanly field- ed the hard-hit baseball and quickly threw to second base to force out Mason. That put Whitehead on first with one out, and the Chargers still trailing the Titans by the 5 -2 score. Belmore came back to the plate, the first-year varsity per- former had already had a pair of base hits in the game in his first two at bats, with a hard grounder to short on his third opportunity at bat. Belmore hit a long fly ball to left field for the second out of the inning, and that swing of the bat brought sophomore Na- te Carter up to face Titan soph- omore Grant Stinson, who had relieved junior Tanner Boyd on the mound with two outs in the fifth frame. Carter drilled a shot at Reid at shortstop, and the Titan vet- eran fielded the ball and fired to first for the third out of the inning and end the game, with Gibson Southern holding on to the 5 -2 lead. Though the loss dropped Pike Central to 2-10 on the 2023 baseball season, includ- ing 0 -7 in conference action, the Chargers looked like any- thing but a team that was 2-10 on the year. The game was well-played by both teams, and both pitching staffs looked like 10 - 2 teams with their solid play on both offense and defense in the encounter. Gibson Southern outhit Pike Central 9 -7 in the contest, but both pitching staffs scattered the hits to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats (or standing) for most of the fray. Sorgius started on the mound for the Chargers, and the veteran right-hand- er struck out nine Titans in his six innings on the hill. He was charged with four runs, but two of those runs were un- earned. Sorgius did not walk a batter. Meece finished up the final inning for the Chargers on the mound, and he allowed one run on one hit. He walked one Titan. Sorgius and Belmore each had a pair of hits in the game for the Chargers, with one of Sorgius' hits being a double. Whitehead, Pancake, and Ma- son all had a base hit in the conference contest. Carter had a pair of free passes to first base, while Whitehead and Mason each worked the Titan pitchers for a walk. On Monday, May 15, the Chargers will travel to North- east Dubois for their final reg- ular season game of the year at 5 p.m. TITANS Continued from page 7 Sydney Burdette won 6 -2 over Danielle Farbrough. Lillian Mann beat Farmbrough 6 -3 and Hattie Yager beat Farm- brough 6 -3. "We had lost to them earli- er in the season in the second round of a tournament. Dur- ing the previous match we had a player retire due to heat, we had a player out with a shoul- der injury, and had to make another substitution as well. It wasn't an ideal set of cir- cumstances. So to get to play them again with a healthy line- up was nice, and it was really good to take a 1-4 loss and turn it into a 5 -0. We played ex- tremely well on all five courts, and I'm glad our kids took ad- vantage of the rematch," Beck. On Saturday the Chargers beat Tell City 3-2 to get their fourth win of the season. Sallee at number one singles pulled out a three set win in a tiebreaker after losing the first set 7-5. She won the second set 6 -2 and then won a tiebreak- er to take the deciding third set 7-6. Gabby Collins who moved up to number two singles eas- ily won 6 -3, 6 -0 over senior Niccole Bailey. Lillian Mann at number three singles lost with both sets ending in a tie- breakers 7-6. At number one doubles Craig and Keeker fell in three sets after winning the first set 6 -2 the lost by the second and third sets 7-5. Emily McGillem and Brylee Walker won the number two doubles 6 -0 and 6 -2 to secure the third team point for the Chargers. The Chargers also ran in- to one of the better teams in Southern Indiana in the Wash- ington Hatchets losing 5 -0. TENNIS Continued from page 7 Senior Charger Karley Kavanaugh just slides around the attempted tag at the plate for a score in a recent game.

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