The North Oldham Lady Mustangs (6-6) won their first district game of the season at home 11-4 against the South Oldham Lady Dragons (9-8) on Tuesday, April 16 with the help of a strong first inning.
“We have a bunch of goals for the season, and this is the first one,” North head coach Bart Becker said. “This game [Wednesday] was definitely important in trying to secure that regional berth. We have Oldham County on April 23 at OC. It’s going to be a great game now. We hope to get that win. If we don’t, it’s not the end of the season. We just have to do it the hard way and do it through the district tournament, but this game right here was extremely important to us. One that we circle on our schedule to make sure that we take care of business.”
North Oldham sophomore Kadie Bosemer started the game, throwing a complete game and allowing seven hits with three strikeouts.
“[The defense] making plays keeps them off the bases, but we’ve worked really hard over the season to try to get better at limiting errors and keeping them off the bases,” Bosemer said.
Junior Kaylee Fitzner tossed one inning before eighth grader Ella Wells came in relief in the second inning, tossing 0.2 innings. Eighth grader Cali Downing finished the game. She threw 4.1 innings, allowing four hits on the night with one strikeout.
North Oldham senior Brooke Bennett picked up three hits, two singles and a double, batting in one run of the night. Sophomore Kori Johnson had one hit, batting in two runs.
“We were working aggressive early in the count,” Bennett said. “We talked about how we only had one strikeout [Wednesday]. The first inning specifically, we were really aggressive and capitalized on their errors. We made it hurt more than they wanted it to, but we tried to get as much as we could.”
Freshman Grace Turner batted in three runs on two hits that included a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning for South Oldham.
Bosemer forced a ground out to start the game. Wells picked up the first hit with a single and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Sophomore Addi Schrecker batted Wells in with an RBI single for South’s first run of the game. North sophomore Jessalyn Travis turned a double play to end the top of the first inning.
The Lady Mustangs had an offensive explosion in the bottom of the first inning. After a fly out, they put their first runner on base with a walk followed by an RBI single by Bennett. A hit by pitch and error loaded the bases for North Oldham.
An error on a pop up allowed two more runs to score for the Lady Mustangs before a double by eighth grader Raleigh Becker scored another two runs. Johnson gave them a 7-1 lead on a two-run double. The Lady Dragons got out of the first inning with a ground out.
“I think [Wednesday] we came out in the first inning ready to work,” Bennett said. “We know that they scored in the first inning, but we came back in, and our motto is to win every inning and win our game. I think we got all of our nerves out of the way for this game.”
With two outs, South junior Taylor Stotts singled in the top of the second. The bases were loaded on an error and a walk. Turner batted in a run with a single, but Johnson threw out the second runner trying to score from left field, ending the top of the second inning.
Bennett led off the bottom of the second inning with a double and was followed by two walks to load the bases. A walk scored a run before a fielder’s choice scored another. A walk loaded the bases again before a hit by pitch gave North Oldham a 10-2 lead. Downing came into the game, popping up her first batter to end the second inning.
Bosemer produced a no hit inning in the top of the fourth, stranding one runner. Downing started to settle down the Lady Dragon defense. She allowed a one-out double before forcing two pop ups to end the third inning. Both teams went three up, three down in the fourth.
“[Downing] came in and did a great job, really had us off balance,” Becker said. “[She] was able to effectively mix the changeup in and throw it for a strike. We have to do a better job as hitters to stay back and hit that changeup, but that’s also a tough pitch to hit. She did a good job [Wednesday]. She definitely has off balance. Now having seen her, we’re definitely going to have to prepare a little bit better that we could be seeing her again in the future.”
In the top of the fifth inning, Bosemer tossed another one hit inning with no runs. The Lady Mustang offense started back up in the bottom of the fifth. Freshman Avery Becker singled followed by a Bennett single in the next at bat. White hit an RBI single to put them one run away from a run-rule win, but Downing got out of the inning with a pop up and fly out.
“[Bosemer] has pitched against some good teams,” Becker said. “We’re just trying to get the experience now in these bigger games, so that we’re ready at the end of the season.”
Bosemer and Downing threw a three up, three down sixth inning. Stotts led off the top of the seventh with a single. With two outs, Turner crushed a two-run home run to cut into the Lady Dragon deficit. Bosemer closed out the game, giving North Oldham an 11-4 win.
“I think we started off early with a lot better competition,” Bosemer said. “We started working towards [the automatic regional bid] before spring break.”
North Oldham will host Trimble County (9-6) in an Eighth Region showdown on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The Lady Mustangs will play at the Oldham County Lady Colonels on Tuesday, April 23 at 6 p.m. If North wins, it will clinch a spot in the Eighth Region Tournament.
“I think the girls are ready,” Becker said. “They know the goal of the season. They got a good taste of it last year. They know what we expect. We have a pretty tough stretch on the schedule here coming up in the next couple of weeks, but we don’t ever want to overlook a game. We’re not overlooking our next two games by any means, but we are very focused for next Tuesday.”
South Oldham will host Elizabethtown (17-2) on Wednesday at 6 p.m.