Despite some rainouts, local teams manage to pick up some wins on the ball fields

[April 10, 2017]   While the soggy saga continues around area diamonds, much to the delight of farmers who need the moisture for their fields, some local teams did manage to get some games in and as a bonus pick up some wins.

The Lincoln Railsplitters Softball Team picked up three wins last week and improved their record to 6-4 on the season.

SOUTHEAST

The ladies started the week off on Tuesday with a 14-2 win over Southeast.

Lincoln pounded out 12 hits in the game, with Kerstin Osborne, Kayla Maly, Hope Moos, Lauren Block and Maddie Tanner each having two hits for the Railsplitters.

Lincoln put four runs on the board in the first inning, highlighted by doubles off the bats of Mackenzie Antoine and Sydney Worth.

Lincoln also had a six-run sixth inning.

Lincoln added four more runs in the seventh inning and cruised to the 14-2 Central State Eight win.

Osborne picked up the win, going the distance and striking out nine batters. She only allowed four hits and two runs.

TAYLORVILLE

Finally on Friday the field was dry enough to play again and the ladies edged out Taylorville in a 6-5 thriller. This one took ten innings to complete.

Lincoln scored the winning run in the tenth inning on a ground out by Sydney Sutherland and managed to hang on for the win by shutting out Taylorville in the bottom of the tenth inning. Taylorville had tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The ladies had 10 hits in this game with Moos and Osborne each collecting two apiece. Osborne did a fine job earning the win, pitching nine and two-thirds innings, allowing five hits, five runs and striking out 12 batters.

MORTON

Saturday was by far the most beautiful day of the week and Lincoln split a doubleheader at home with the Morton Lady Potters.

Morton has put a lot of runs on the board this season and they scored plenty over Lincoln, taking the first game 9-2.

Morton scored first in the top of the fifth inning on an error by Lincoln. The Lady Potters added three runs in the sixth inning and put five more runs across in the seventh inning to take a 9-0 lead.

Lincoln managed two runs in the bottom of the seventh before falling by a final of 9-2.

Moos took the loss for Lincoln. She threw seven innings, allowing nine runs on 10 hits, while striking out six.

Macey Lasota pitched a one-hitter for Morton. Lasota gave up a hit to Worth while striking out three batters as she went the distance.

Lincoln bounced back and took the second game 4-1.

Morton scored their only run in the first inning and after that Osborne shut down the Lady Potters. Osborne earned her third win of the week for the Railsplitters by putting on a spectacular performance from the circle. The junior pitched a complete game while allowing just the one run, three hits and striking out five batters.

Lincoln tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the first on an error by Morton. Lincoln took the lead for good with two runs in the third inning. The highlight of the inning was a two-run double by Moos. Lincoln added another run in the bottom of the fifth inning and went on to win by a final of 4-1.

A good week of wins for Coach Darrin Worth’s young team, led by Osborne in the circle. "She picked up all three of our wins this week,” said Coach Worth of his junior. "We beat Southeast on Tuesday 14-2 and then Friday was just a great game against Taylorville. It went ten innings. We were down the whole game. We trailed 4-2 until the top of the sixth inning with two outs, we had runners on second and third and Sydney Worth hit a double over the centerfielder’s head to the fence and scored both of those runs to tie it up. That was probably one of the biggest plays of the game. But there were so many big plays of the game,”

Worth continued. "Mackenzie Antoine had two diving catches in centerfield that saved a run or two. It was a great game. Kerstin struck out 12 Friday night against Taylorville. That was big, but Hope Moos, I mean she had a great weekend with the bat. She had a couple hits Friday night and she had a couple big hits in our 4-1 win against Morton.”

"We are undefeated in the conference, right now, 3-0,” said Worth, looking ahead to this coming week. "We play Chatham Tuesday and Wednesday and that’s going to be a big test like usual. When we play really good defense and our pitchers pitch like they have been, you know, we are pretty much in every game. Three out of our four losses this year have come against ranked teams. We got beat by both Williamsville (still undefeated) and Bloomington Central Catholic, both ranked in the state.”

Coach Worth is obviously proud of his young team’s performance. The Railsplitters have just two seniors, Block and Moos, and two juniors, Osborne and Tori Tripplett. The rest of the girls taking the field are all sophomores and freshmen playing at the varsity level.

"We have a young team where the next three or four years is going to be really good, really promising,” said Worth.

The LCHS softball team has a busy week ahead and their schedule is as follows:

Tuesday home versus Glenwood 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday at Glenwood 4:30 p.m.
Thursday home versus Southeast 4:30 p.m. (makeup game)
Friday at Mount Zion 4:30 p.m.

Lincoln Railsplitters Boys Baseball Team

The Lincoln Railsplitters Boys Baseball Team went 2-2 on the week.

The Railsplitters lost a tough one 9-8 Tuesday night at Southeast on a walk-off single by the Spartans in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Railsplitters were on the other end of a late-inning win Friday night as the boys won in dramatic fashion thanks to Drew Singleton. Singleton laid down a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the seventh inning against Limestone, giving Lincoln a 6-5 walk-off victory as the winning run scored from third.

Lincoln had a 1-0 lead over Limestone after two innings of play but the Rockets took a 4-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning. The Railsplitters scored three runs and tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Limestone scored once in the seventh inning to reclaim a 5-4 lead. The Railsplitters put two runs across the plate in the bottom of the inning, with the winning run scoring on the sacrifice bunt by Singleton.

On Saturday Lincoln hosted a doubleheader. The Railsplitters won the first game 15-2 over Pontiac in five innings.

In the second game Canton defeated Lincoln 16-2.

Lincoln falls to 4-6 on the season.

This week the Railsplitters have four baseball games on the schedule.

Tuesday home versus Glenwood 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday at Glenwood 4:30 p.m.
Saturday home versus Mahomet-Seymour DH at 10:00 a.m.

Mount Pulaski Boys Baseball Team

Over in Mount Pulaski the Hilltoppers Baseball Team lost twice during the week, with their record falling to 0-7. Coach Joel Washko’s team lost 7-1 on Tuesday to Williamsville and then lost 2-1 on Saturday to Decatur MacArthur.

During Saturday’s loss freshman Todd Kelly threw four innings, allowing just two hits and one run while striking out seven batters. Ben Fricke and Logan DeRight each had two hits for Mount Pulaski in the tough loss.

DeRight is leading the team with a .333 batting average. He has seven hits in 21 at-bats, including one home run on the season.

Washko’s team is also young and seems to be having some struggles at the plate against, to be expected, Varsity competition. The team is searching for their first win on the season this week and will have three attempts to get that first victory.

MPHS Boys Baseball schedule for the week:

Tuesday home versus Cerro Gordo 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday home versus Edinburg 4:30 p.m.
Thursday at Midwest Central 4:30 p.m.

MPHS Girls Softball Team

The MPHS Girls Softball Team was rained out all last week but they are also looking for their first win this season. The ladies have an 0-2 record in their first season fielding a team in a decade.

MPHS Girls Softball schedule for the week:

Tuesday home versus Cerro Gordo 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday home versus Meridian 4:30 p.m.
Saturday at Midwest Central 11 a.m.

Hartem Boys Baseball

The Hartsburg-Emden Boys Baseball Team fell to 0-2 on the season after losing their home opener 13-1 last Friday night to Peoria Heights. Peoria Heights is off to a 5-0 start this season. The Stags have a couple opportunities at victory this coming week.

Hartem Boys Baseball schedule for the week:

Monday at Eureka 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday home versus Midwest Central 4:30 p.m.

Good luck to all the area teams and hopefully rain will move out of the area and these young men and women can take to the field and compete on dry ground.

Lincoln Daily News will have scores, stats and coach’s comments in next week’s column.

[Teena Lowery]