BSM Softball Opens Conference Slate With Win

The softball team opened the North Suburban Conference schedule with a 4-1 victory over Totino-Grace Tuesday at home.

"This was a nice win for us, especially after we dropped two games to them last season," BSM coach Adrian Wagner said. "We pitched and fielded the ball quite well and got a couple of timely hits and quality at-bats to get the win."

The Red Knights jumped out early with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Freshman first baseman Maddie Houlihan dumped a double to left field and advanced to third on a wild pitch. An out later, she darted home on a ground ball out off the bat of senior Amanda Johnson. It was Johnson's ninth RBI of the young season

BSM made it 3-0 with a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Senior Grace Gallagher battled off three two-strike pitches before drawing a walk to open the frame. After Johnson bunted her over to second base and she advanced to third on a wild pitch and the second out of the inning was recorded, senior catcher Casey Nightingale fouled off three two-stike pitches as well and drew a walk. She then stole second base, and both runners raced home on a sharp single to left off the bat of freshmen Christine Lager.

An inning later, it was 4-0 in favor of the Red Knights. With one out, senior second baseman Coco Paulson singled to left and then promptly swiped second base. She advanced to third on a solid single to right by Houlihan and then slid home in front of the tag on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Gallagher.

Johnson made those four runs stand up into the seventh inning, as she did not allow more than one base runner in an inning and set the side down in order in three of them. In the seventh Totino-Grace would load the bases with one out, but Johnson then coaxed ground ball outs to Paulson and then Gallagher to close out the game.

"Amanda has really pitched well the last two games," Wagner said. "She came into the game off a nice three-hit shutout against DeLaSalle and really kept Totino-Grace off balance the entire game. She made a number of really nice pitches when she had three-ball counts on batters. This was the type of game where her four years of varsity pitching experience really showed."

The Red Knights (4-1 overall, 1-0 NSC) return to action by playing host to Irondale in another conference game at 4:15 p.m. Thursday.