It was a cold and rainy eight-day wait since the Fairfield Lady Lions stood on a softball field, and it seemed Mother Nature’s only way to cool off the Lady Lions’ high powered offense. The Lady Lions were glad to get back on the field Tuesday as they hooked up to play the New Richmond Lady Lions in a non-league contest. The game featured the top team in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference and the top team in the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference.
It was a classic softball game featuring great pitching and defense whose outcome was in doubt up until the final out. On this day New Richmond (7-1, 3-0 SBAAC) shutout Fairfield (4-1, 2-0 SHAC) by a score of 3-0.
Fairfield was kept off balance at the plate by New Richmond’s sophomore pitcher Izzy Carroll, who threw a perfect game through 6 2/3 innings. In the top of the seventh inning, Fairfield’s Halle Hamilton ripped a line drive right at the third baseman for the first out, then Jobey Hattan laced a hard ground ball right at the third baseman for the second out. But Caitlyn Quickle broke up the perfect game with a line drive single to left field and Emmi Vance followed with a single to center field. Carroll, however, retired the next Fairfield batter on a fly ball to the left fielder.
“It was just one of those days at the plate. Fairfield batters only had two strikeouts and hit the ball hard many times, but right at New Richmond defenders. New Richmond played errorless softball,” Fairfield coach Tom Purtell said.
Quickle, a sophomore, pitched well for Fairfield, scattering five hits and striking out nine. But two untimely errors by the Fairfield defense led to three unearned runs.
The leadoff hitter for New Richmond reached first on an error in the bottom of the first inning and scored. Quickle kept the score at 1-0 through the fifth inning. She would gave up a lead off double in the bottom of the second inning, but struck out the next three batters and stranded the runner. She gave up another double to lead off the third inning, but the defensive play of the game followed.
Lykins ripped a fly ball into the gap in right center field as both the Fairfield right fielder Sydney Hopper and center fielder Vance raced to the fly ball. The ball deflected off Hooper’s glove and Vance made a diving catch of the fly ball. Vance then doubled up the runner on second, who had advanced to third base. Quickle struck out the next hitter to end the inning.
Another untimely Fairfield error in the bottom of the sixth inning led to two more unearned runs.
Quickle (2-1) suffered the defeat for Fairfield. In six innings she allowed three runs (none earned) on five hits and one walk, while striking out nine.
Carroll (3-1) was the winning pitcher for New Richmond. in seven innings she have up no runs and no walks, struck out two and gave up two hits.
Fairfield hosts Eastern Brown in an SHAC contest in Leesburg on Thursday. Game time is slated for 6 p.m.
Information for this story was provided by Thomas E. Purtell, a Fairfield softball coach.
