Carlisle remains unbeaten in SWBL, buries league rival Shawnee 16-7

If there was any doubt about Carlisle High School’s status as the softball team to beat in the Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division, it got blown away Friday.

The Indians didn’t get off to a great start at Preble Shawnee, but they obliterated a 5-2 deficit with 14 runs in the last three innings and romped to a 16-7 victory to remain unbeaten in SWBL play.

“I thought it was on us because we tied with Madison last year and I graduated one girl,” Carlisle coach Tom Shelton said of wearing the Buckeye bull’s-eye. “If we play to our potential, I feel we are the team to beat. I told our girls I feel it’s ours to lose.

“Hopefully we can finish this off and go back to back as league champs because my four seniors really want that bad. We won the league last year for the first time in 25 years. Those seniors want to do it again, so they’re really focused and pushing the other kids as well.”

Every player in the lineup had at least one hit for the Indians, who improved to 6-4 overall and 5-0 in the SWBL. Sierra Bolen went 4-for-5 with three doubles, four RBIs and three runs.

“We’ve been hitting, but we have not hit 1 through 9 like we did tonight,” Shelton said. “That’s what we’re capable of doing when all nine girls swing the bat. That’s why we averaged 10 runs a game last year, and this is basically the same team I had last year.”

Carlisle found itself in 3-1 and 5-2 holes before erupting on Arrows pitcher Riane Woodard and ending Shawnee’s 11-game winning streak.

The Indians finished with 19 hits, and the hosts showed some generosity by committing five errors.

“When that’s your fourth league game of the week and your prom week, that’s a recipe for disaster,” said Arrows coach Jeff Lynch, conceding that his team was due for a rough day. “We quit competing at the plate, we lost our focus in the field, and we haven’t done that all year. It just escalated. It was like batting practice up there for them.”

Shawnee’s 5-2 advantage lasted until the top of the fifth inning. Jenna Jewell walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-3. Bolen then lashed a one-out double to left field, where a shoestring catch attempt was unsuccessful. The ball rolled to the wall, three runs scored, and Carlisle never trailed again.

“I didn’t look. I didn’t know where it was hit,” admitted Bolen, a sophomore center fielder. “I had a lot of pressure on me and I strived through it because I wanted to help my team out.”

Prior to that inning, she said the Indians needed some mental adjustments.

“We were thinking we need to get our heads out of our butts,” Bolen said. “I feel like when we got down, it just made us stronger, and we came back and hit like we know how to.”

Bolen, the No. 6 batter in Carlisle’s lineup, brought a .481 batting average into the game.

“She’s been swinging the bat well, but she’s also had at-bats that me and my other coach would be like, ‘Man, her swing just doesn’t look good.’ Then you look in the book and she’s 2-for-4,” Shelton said. “But this is more of what we’re expecting out of her most of the time. She’s got that capability.”

Also among the Indians’ top hitters were Sierra Orth (two hits, three runs), Annie Campbell (three hits, double, two RBIs), winning pitcher Ashley Brown (two hits, triple), Jewell (two hits, two RBIs, three runs), Bailey Naylor (two hits) and Caitlyn Stewart (two hits, double, three RBIs).

Brown gave up nine hits and struck out nine to pick up the win in the circle. Annilou Belvo and Destiny Quillen both had two hits and two RBIs for Shawnee (11-3, 7-1), with Belvo belting a triple. Michaela Ruark added a double, a single and an RBI, and Miranda Chaney contributed two hits.

“I think them kind of jumping on us and hitting Ashley woke us up,” Shelton said. “Once everybody saw they could make contact and we should be hitting this girl, everybody jumped on the bandwagon for us.”

Carlisle, which started the season with a 1-3 swing through Myrtle Beach, S.C., will be at Wayne for two games Saturday. The Indians will play Oak Hills at 11 a.m. and Milford at 1 p.m.

The Arrows are off this weekend and will visit Carlisle on Monday. Lynch vowed that a determined group of Arrows will show up for Round 2.

“It’ll be a different game Monday,” Lynch said. “You can bet your butt on that.”

Carlisle 100-157-2—16-19-1

Preble Shawnee 030-200-2—7-9-5

WP – Ashley Brown (6-3); LP – Riane Woodard (9-2). Records: C 6-4, 5-0 SWBL Buckeye; P 11-3, 7-1 SWBL Buckeye

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