Mother Nature tried to deliver a 1-2 punch of cold and rain Monday as the Knoch and Greensburg Salem softball teams battled in a Section 1-4A game at Laura Doerr Memorial Park in Cabot.
Showers early in the contest tested both teams.
But skies soon cleared, and Knoch continued to give the visiting Golden Lions a dreary feeling.
The Knoch offense collected 10 hits, and Kaila Purcell pitched five-plus innings en route to an 8-2 victory.
The Knights bounced back from last week’s 6-0 loss to Indiana and improved to 3-3 overall and 2-2 in section play.
“The Indiana loss kind of woke us up a little bit, and we knew we needed to get to work,” said coach Chris Gardner, whose team hosts Freeport on Wednesday and visits Derry on Friday.
“We knew we were better than what we showed. Nobody should be shutting us out. We have a lot of bats the whole way, one through nine, and we were able to show that today. It was nice to see the life in the bats.”
Knoch scored three runs in the top of the first and added a run in the fourth, one in the fifth and three more in the sixth.
Alena Tekely gave the Knights some added breathing room in the bottom of the sixth with a one-out, bases-clearing double. The three runs added to a 5-2 lead.
She came through right after Salem intentionally walked third baseman/shortstop Emersyn Jones to load the bases. Jones had doubled in each of her previous two plate appearances off of Golden Lions starter Alle Scarpa, a Seton Hill commit.
“I knew I had to contribute there knowing that I wasn’t exactly contributing the way I wanted to earlier in the game,” Tekely said.
“I just wanted to hit the ball hard and put it in play anywhere so my baserunners could score. We have a lot of trust in each other that someone will make a play. We had a lot of people making plays today. It was a great feeling. It was nice to come in here, play hard and get the win.”
Tekely, a right fielder and the team’s cleanup hitter, also drove in Knoch’s fifth-inning run with a single and singled and scored in the first.
“Alena had a heckuva day,” Gardner said. “That’s what we expect from her.”
Knoch catcher McKenna Brailey singled home two of her team’s first-inning runs, and leadoff hitter Lizzie Danik collected two hits including a powerful run-scoring triple with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Scarpa struck out two and walked two over her seven innings against the Knights.
After recording back-to-back strikeouts to begin the second, Purcell encountered issues gripping the softballs, which had become slick with the persistent rain.
Gardner took her out in favor of Jones, who got Golden Lions center fielder Marley Perrone to ground out to end the inning.
Purcell returned to the circle in the third and pitched four more innings. She didn’t walk another batter, finished with seven strikeouts and surrendered seven hits.
“We knew it was going to be just an inning or so to get through the rain,” Gardner said. “She did a nice job against a good lineup.
“She had wrist surgery in the offseason, so she still is gaining more and more confidence each time she pitches.”
Salem’s runs came with some two-out excitement in the fifth.
Scarpa helped herself by delivering a long fly ball that fell in near the fence in left field. Catcher Hannah Olbeter followed by crushing a Purcell offering over the fence in center field.
First baseman Cate Waugaman followed with a single, but Purcell struck out second baseman Avah Lillie to end the inning.
The Salem offense had its chances. Nine runners were left on base, including four in scoring position.
Jones came on again and retired the Golden Lions in order in the top of the seventh to wrap up the victory.
“I even said in the middle of the game that we were one hit away,” said Salem coach Bill Wright, who will see his team take a 2-2 overall record and a 2-1 mark in section into a game Wednesday at Indiana.
“We just couldn’t get that extra hit. Knoch is a great team, and we needed to take advantage of all of our chances at the plate. We also needed to take advantage of our chances defensively and get off the field. We didn’t do that well enough today. Hat’s off to Knoch. They really hit the ball well today.
“It doesn’t get any easier with Indiana on Wednesday, but we just have to keep grinding it out.”