Fox, Cardinals breeze past Indians 3-0

NEW BREMEN - A slight breeze was in the air on Thursday in New Bremen.

On the softball field, Cardinals pitcher Sophie Fox breezed through the Fort Recovery batting order, one-by-one, inning-by-inning.

Fox hurled a complete-game, one-hitter and added an RBI double at the plate to lead the Cardinals to a 3-0 victory over the Indians in Midwest Athletic Conference play.

"Sophie's a good pitcher," New Bremen coach Craig Griesdorn complimented. "She hits her spots. In seven innings, I don't think she hit 70 pitches. She's around the plate, and she relied on her defense to make plays. If she gets strikeouts, that's a plus, but you've got to count on the defense to make plays, and for the most part we did that tonight."

Fort Recovery leadoff hitter Chelsea Timmerman reached first on an error in the opening inning. She stole second but was picked off by catcher Debbie Paul trying to take third. Seconds later, Devin Post singled for the Indians' lone hit. Fox forced a 4-3 putout to end the inning.

No other Indians grazed the base trail the rest of the night, as Fox went on to post six consecutive 1-2-3 innings. Fox finished the night with nine strikeouts and no walks.

"We made a miscue on the first play, but we were able to get the runner off of third, and that was big because they ended up getting a little single that would have knocked a run in," Griesdorn said. "You never want to play from behind, so it was key getting out of that inning."

The Cardinals (3-3, 1-0 MAC) couldn't do much against FR starter Timmerman but managed to do just enough.

New Bremen's Cassidy Smith hit a single with one out in the second and then Jenna Broerman successfully bunted for a hit on the next at-bat. Smith was forced out at third on Madysson Ritter's grounder to leave runners on first and second for Kaitlyn Ahrns, who put Bremen up 1-0 with an RBI single.

The following inning, Alyse Clune nearly took off Timmerman's head with a line drive up the middle. After stealing second and third, Clune was driven home by Fox's double. Madison Wells, courtesy running for Fox, later scored on an error for the game's final run.

"The key in this game is you've got to get a lead and you've got to be able to hold it," Griesdorn said. "I'm glad we won. Fort Recovery's getting much, much better. They've always been a good hitting team. We knew they were going to put the ball in play. We just had to play defense, and we did play a good defensive game tonight."

With Fox and Timmerman firing on all cylinders in the pitcher's circle, the game breezed by quickly, taking slightly over an hour to complete.

All five hits surrendered by Timmerman came in the second and third innings. The Indians senior gave up two earned runs and struck out five in six innings. Neither pitcher issued a walk in the game.

The Indians, who picked up their first victory of the season on Tuesday against Jay County, fell to 1-7 and 0-1 in MAC play. Still, first-year coach Jeff Vaughn was encouraged by the effort his team put up against a team considered to be a contender for the MAC title.

"This team has a good pitcher, and obviously you see what happens when you face a good pitcher," Vaughn said. "I told them to build on it. We've got a lot of games coming up in the next week, and hopefully we can build on this and get some W's."

Fort Recovery heads to Van Wert County on Saturday for a quad with Lincolnview, Crestview and Celina.

New Bremen hosts Fort Loramie tonight.