Mena run-rules Cobras after grand slam
The Mena Bearcats dominated the Fountain Lake Cobras’ softball team with a 12-1 victory Thursday.
A pair of four-run innings helped Mena end the game with a five-inning run rule. Junior pitcher Abigail Koppein went all five innings, striking out nine.
“She’s a pretty good pitcher,” Mena head coach Ray Hunter said after the game. “She was our all-state pitcher last year in this district. She came back and she’s having a good year so far and I thought she pitched pretty well.”
The Bearcat offense was too much to handle as eight different players scored a run, eight players recorded a hit, and six players collected multiple hits.
Senior pitcher Eden East got the start for the Cobras. After allowing the first two batters to reach base, she recovered well, allowing only one run to score and picking up a couple of strikeouts. Fountain Lake answered back immediately. After a leadoff walk and a wild pitch moved the runner to second, East delivered an RBI single to give the Cobras their one run of the game. She had two of the five Cobra hits.
Mena took control of the game with a big second inning. After a lineout to start the inning, seven consecutive Bearcats reached base. Junior first baseman Lily Rowland got the offense going with a double, and moved to third on an errant throw back to the infield.
She scored on a bunt single from junior left fielder Addison Thomas. Senior center fielder Kensey Rosson followed up with a triple down the left field line. Thomas and Rosson reached base in all nine of their plate appearances and combined for three RBIs and four runs scored.
Freshman third baseman Alayna Powell and Koppein each delivered RBI singles a couple batters later. The damage could have been worse, but they caught a runner at home after a wild pitch went to the backstop. After the four-run second inning, Fountain Lake brought in sophomore Abby Burden to pitch the remainder of the game.
“We started out with East and I decided if they were going to hit her, which they did, I was going to go with Burden, who’s a little bit slower to mess up their timing a little bit,” Fountain Lake head coach Sarah East said after the game. “I was pretty proud of my girls. They haven’t pitched a game in about two weeks, so they’re a little rusty, but they came out and made them hit, and made the defense work.”
Burden allowed a leadoff walk in the third that came around to score on an error a couple batters later. Later in the inning, a single loaded the bases for Mena. Then a hit to shallow left by Powell scored another run, but junior left fielder Adysen Moody threw out the second runner trying to score and helped limit the damage. Powell knocked in three runs in the contest for Mena.
In the fourth inning, with the Cobras down 8-1, they loaded the bases with one out and threatened to score, but a pop-up and groundout ended the inning without a Fountain Lake run. The Cobras stranded seven runners on base over the first four frames.
After a pair of walks loaded the bases for Mena in the fifth, freshman catcher Emmi Kate Hensley laced a ball into the left-center gap and made it around for an inside-the-park grand slam and busted the game wide open, 12-1 in favor of the Bearcats.
“She hit the ball hard all day and she finally hit one where they weren’t standing,” Hunter said. “She hit it just right and rolled to the fence and she’s a quick little runner, and that helps, and she got all the way around. I was very proud of that.”
Fountain Lake did not respond well, and went onetwo-three for the first time in the game, with Koppein ending the game with a strikeout for Mena.
“I think we came out and competed,” East said. “We didn’t hit the ball great, but we came out and competed. They’ve got some good pitchers and they had some really good, timely hits that scored a lot of runs. We at least worked and competed with them.”