INDIANAPOLIS — A season-opening win less than two months ago felt like a bit of payback for the Eastern Hancock Royals softball team.
The Royals began 2019 with a victory against rival Knightstown, who had eliminated them from the 2018 tournament in a 2-0 game. Eastern Hancock erased some of those bad memories with a 4-2 win on April 9.
On Tuesday, they truly got back at the Panthers. The Royals run-ruled their rivals in just five innings, knocking Knightstown out of the tournament with a 13-2 sectional semifinal win at Heritage Christian.
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“It feels great. Coming in at the beginning of the season, we beat them 4-2, but we got a lot better as the season went on,” Eastern Hancock senior Megan Bever said. “We felt confident coming in today. We just got up and were ready to play today.
“It’s our rival. We were determined to win, and we did.”
It was a much different kind of game for Eastern Hancock compared to Monday’s sectional opener, a 3-0 win against Heritage Christian.
The bats were struggling. The energy wasn’t there.
That all changed quickly on Tuesday.
“Day and night compared to what we did last night. That right there, the energy, is what we were lacking last night,” Eastern Hancock coach Terry Stephens said after the game as his team celebrated. “The whole bus ride here, they were crazy. They’ve been crazy from the start of the game to the finish of the game. That is so contagious.”
The energy carried over to the offense. The hits piled up. The Royals drew six walks.
They put the pressure on the Panthers and never let up.
“The hits, they are also contagious. Once we started hitting ‘em, we were going,” Stephens said. “If we can hit that way, we’re hard to beat. Our pitching and defense is solid. We’ve just got to be able to put some runs on the board to go with it.”
The Royals scored nine runs in the first two innings to quickly blow the game open. They had five hits in each inning and batted around the order, sending 10 batters to the plate in both frames.
Eastern Hancock’s offense amassed 14 hits in the game, led by a 3-for-4 day from Caroline Stapleton, the county leader in batting average and triples this season. Kaylee Stewart, Bailey Stephens and Syndi Bednarski each had two singles, and Taylor Koch doubled twice.
Turner had three RBIs, while Koch, Bednarski and Truitt had two each. Stephens, Bever and Stewart each had one RBI.
Turner also picked up the win in the circle, throwing a complete five innings. She held the Panthers to just one hit and no runs through four innings before a late rally. Turner finished with seven strikeouts and allowed four hits and two runs. She walked five and hit two batters.
“Maddie’s not going to be happy with herself because of the walks,” Stephens said. “She’ll come back. She hasn’t pitched a whole lot lately — we’ve kind of been saving her a little bit. But we’re sure going to burn that left arm up.”
Another rematch awaits in today’s sectional championship game. The Royals will meet Triton Central, who topped Indianapolis Howe in Tuesday’s second game, at 5:30 p.m. at Heritage Christian.
Eastern Hancock closed its 2019 regular season with a 5-0 win against the Tigers.
“I’m just hoping this carries over,” Stephens said. “I’d like to play the game tonight is what I’d like to do. I don’t want to go home and go to sleep. I want to keep that energy up.”
“Our defense is always solid,” Bever said. “Now that we’ve got our bats going, we’re ready to see what’s ahead of us.”
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Eastern Hancock 13, Knightstown 2
EH;450;22;—;13;14;0
K;000;02;—;2;4;3
WP: Maddie Turner. LP: Sidney Vise.
2B: Taylor Koch 2 (EH). RBI: Turner 3, Koch 2, Sydni Bednarski 2, Eriel Truitt 2, Megan Bever, Bailey Stephens, Kaylee Stewart (EH).
Notable: Caroline Stapleton 3-for-4; Turner 1-for-3, 3 RBI, 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 7 K, 5 BB, 2 HB (EH).
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