GREENFIELD — Jason Stewart tossed and turned all night.
The anticipation of opening day weighed heavily on the head coach’s mind Sunday evening, and his Greenfield-Central Cougars softball team wasn’t immune either.
Unable to take their home field for an official game since May 17, 2019 — 10 months before the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent cancellation of the 2020 campaign — Monday’s season opener was a soothing breath of fresh air.
“I’m not gonna lie. I couldn’t sleep last night. It’s so nice to be out here,” Stewart remarked. “It’s been 22 months since we’ve played.”
For the Cougars and their fans in attendance, it was well worth the wait.
Greenfield-Central’s bats came out swinging to combine for 15 hits overall against Class 2A No. 10 Lapel, including a solo home run by junior catcher Ellie Ewald, and ace Camille Burelison limited the visiting Bulldogs to five hits to give the Cougars a decisive 10-2 victory.
“We knew we were going to put up runs. That’s not something we’re going to struggle with, I think. One through nine, we can all hit,” Greenfield-Central senior second baseman Caroline Gibson said. “But, it starts in the middle, so as long as our pitching is there, we’re going to score runs and it will be good.”
It was all good with Burelison dealing in the circle on Monday.
The sophomore surrendered two runs in the top of the first, but she settled in afterwards, striking out six, walking one and retiring eight straight at one point for the win.
Lapel put its first two hitters on base behind a leadoff single by Krystin Davis, followed by a walk drawn by Chloe Tucker before a wild pitch scored the first runner.
An RBI single by Taylor Williams put Lapel up 2-0, but the Cougars shook off the jitters and rust in the bottom half of the frame.
“I had trouble sleeping last night. It’s that exciting to play,” Gibson said. “When we took infield today, you could tell everyone was maybe nervous, maybe because we hadn’t played together before, so it is a different dynamic, but once we got going, it was fun.”
Gibson finished 1-for-3 with an RBI single during Greenfield-Central’s two-run bottom of the second. Morgan Hornaday, a junior left fielder, went 2-for-2 with a run scored and a walk.
Sophomore Olivia Roberts was 1-for-2 with a double and a sacrifice fly for an RBI in the fourth, while Burelison helped her own cause with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate with five RBI.
Burelison tied the game in the bottom of the first with a two-run single to deep left-center field, and she later scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-2.
Her RBI sacrifice fly to deep center field in the second increased the lead 4-2 before Gibson drove in the inning’s second run with a single into center.
Burelison blasted a two-run double in the bottom of the third with two outs to put Lapel in a 7-2 hole.
Lapel came into the game at 2-0 on the season with a 5-3 win over Madison County rival Elwood on Tuesday and a 10-0, six-inning victory over Hamilton Heights on Friday.
The Bulldogs’ offense generated three singles after the first inning and grounded into nine outs, including a 1-6-3 double play to end the top of the third.
“Today, we just got punched in the mouth. That’s what that is,” Lapel head coach Scott Rich said. “That’s a good team, and we want to pick up teams like that. We want to be pushed. Nobody wants to get beat as bad as we got beat today, but I want to see good competition, too, and our girls need to see that. Not to say the teams we beat were soft teams. They are good, too, but we were flat today.”
The Cougars were primed.
Greenfield-Central scored one run or more in each inning except the bottom of the sixth, and its lead ballooned to 9-2 after four innings behind an RBI sacrifice fly from junior Taylor Smith (1-for-3) in the fourth and Roberts’ sacrifice to left field with one out.
Mallorie Fultz, a senior shortstop, went 2-for-3 with a run scored for the Cougars. Leadoff hitter Megan Wineinger scored three runs and was 3-for-4 with a walk. Senior third baseman Hannah Holden went 1-for-4 while Ewald finished 2-for-3 with a walk.
“What I talk a lot about with this group is potential because we haven’t seen them to be honest. We’ve seen what they can do in travel and what they can do in practice, but until they walk out on this field, in this uniform, it’s different,” Stewart said. “But, they gave us a glimpse tonight, and it was good to see.”
Ewald popped up to the first baseman in her initial at-bat, but she drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the second, laced a single in the third and unloaded in the bottom of the fifth.
With one home run to her credit as a freshman in 2019, Ewald rocketed a first-pitch strike over the left-field wall to finalize the margin 10-2.
“We hit the ball well. We’re still missing two big hitters for us, so that’s going to make us a lot deeper offensively,” Stewart said. “It’s exciting. It was fun to come out and watch them tonight.”
Both sophomore Lilly Stewart and junior Ella Redman are out for the time being, but once they return, their presence will allot the Cougars even more lineup flexibility, coach Stewart said.
The Cougars host Richmond on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and have a doubleheader at home on Saturday against Southport. They are on the road at Centerville on Tuesday, April 6, prior to a six-day break when they return and travel to Noblesville on April 12.
“We had our scrimmage last week, and you could tell there were a lot of nerves, so I was interested to see what they were going to do and how they were going to adjust those nerves, and they looked good. They looked really good,” Jason Stewart said. “That’s a team that’s ranked in 2A. Camille did a heck of a job for her first time out. When she dials in, she’s going to be pretty good.”
