BRIGHTON — Cleary University softball coach Tim Bailey has emphasized the importance of hitting in the clutch to his team this season.
“We told the girls early in the year that we lost 12 games by two runs or less last year,” he said. “If we can turn that around, it will make a huge difference.”
It did in Friday’s season opener, when the Cougars, who were 13-29 last year, turned things around against Indiana Wesleyan in a 2-1 victory at the Legacy Center.
The game was part of a five-team invitational organized by Concordia University, and it was played indoors inside a cavernous fieldhouse which had markings for multiple sports, including football.
There was no scoreboard and the only seating for fans were in bleachers beyond the fence.
The Cougars, eager to play someone else, didn’t mind at all.
Wesleyan, which had won the four previous meetings, took the lead in the bottom of the third inning. Kaisey Carson doubled and scored on a single by Alex Springer.
That held until the top of the sixth.
Brooke Edwards reached on an error by Carson, then scored on a double by Cheyanne Wallace. Kala Rogers went in to pinch run and scored when Kaitlin Dormire hit an opposite-field double to right.
“She threw me an outside fastball,” Dormire said. “I knew she was going to throw it to me, so I worked on throwing my hands out to right field.”
Wesleyan got to Cleary starter Riley Thompson in the bottom of the inning, chasing her after a single and walk to start the frame. Natalie O’Reilly came on it pitch and wild pitches both runners to second and third before walking the bases loaded.
Dormire then made another key play, snagging a line drive off the bat of Kira Madl and doubling off Sara Kreitzer going back to first. O’Reilly then got a strikeout to end the threat.
“The big thing was to have the bases loaded with no one out and get out of it,” Bailey said. That was big for us.”
In the second game, Cleary trailed 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth. But the Cougars rallied for five runs with two outs, capped by a three-run double off the bat of Allie Newcomb, who along with Sarah Hall had two hits.
Megan Robinette got the win in relief.
The Cougars are off until Feb. 26, when they begin a week in the sun with a doubleheader against Kaiser University in West Palm Beach, Fla.
