After leaving runners on base more enough to create some discomfort to start the season, Perry wasted few opportunities Tuesday in scoring a 6-2 win over ADM in Raccoon River Conference softball at the Perry Athletic Complex.
The fifth-rated Jayettes (3-2, 1-1) stranded just five runners, with lead-off hitter Jo Diw scoring four times, as a few timely hits and stout defense when needed delivered a much-desired win over the 12th-ranked Tigers (3-2, 1-1). The win snapped a five-game skid for Perry against their bitter rivals to the south and stopped a brief two-game slide after two wins opened the season.
Perry scored in their first at-bat when Diw doubled and eventually came home on an Alyssa Kruger RBI ground-out.
ADM loaded with bases with singles in the second, but a strikeout and force at the plate avoided any damage. Tiger pitcher Abbie Hals singled and came around later to score and tie the game on an error in the top of the third, but Perry countered in the home half of the frame.
Diw was again the catalyst, reaching on an error. Kruger singled with one out, and Diw trotted home on a Rachel Kinney follow-up base hit. An error loaded the bases, but a strikeout threatened to snuff the threat, only to have Brooke Huntington cue a ball off the bag at first base, scoring Kruger and Kinney for a 4-1 Perry lead.
Lindsey Lange’s bases loaded single in the fourth plated a Tiger run, but a ground out ended the inning with the bags — as in the second — still full of ADM runners.
Diw singled, stole second and scored, after a ground out, on a Kruger base hit in the fourth to put the score at 5-2. The junior shortstop crunched a solo home run to deep right-center in her next at-bat to cap the scoring and giving Diw a pair of four-baggers in the first five game.
Kinney was 3-for-3 and Kruger 2-for-3, with Huntington and Maddie West adding base hits for the hosts.
Emma Olejniczak yielded two runs (one earned) on eight hits in seven innings from the circle. She walked one batter and finished with 11 strikeouts.
Hlas was touched for six runs (three earned) on 10 hits while recording five outs.
Perry visits Carroll tonight and Boone Thursday in their next set of games. The Jayettes will then host their annual tournament Saturday, with Interstate-35, IKM-Manning and Van Meter in the field.
