Dori Knight picked a good time to put together what she referred to as her best pitching performance of the season.
The Indian Creek senior allowed one hit and struck out eight to lead the host Braves past Edinburgh 5-0 in the first round of the Johnson County Softball Tournament on Friday.
Coach Gary Mitchell’s squad (11-6), winners of six of its past seven games, advances to this morning’s semifinal game against Greenwood.
The teams play at 10 a.m. on the lower field at Center Grove.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“We’re playing pretty good ball right now,” Mitchell said. “When (Knight) is on the mound, that’s a good thing. But what I think makes us good is everybody knows what their role is.
“We don’t have any specific stars. The team is going to be successful if we all play well and everybody does what they’re supposed to do. I think we’re seeing the ball a little better and are kind of in our stride right now. And defensively we’ve come together real well.”
Indian Creek scored three runs in the bottom of the third to begin breaking the game open.
Junior leadoff hitter Kasey Wilhoit started it with a two-out, opposite-field single to left field. The next batter, shortstop Rachel Kyle, made it to first on one of five Lancers’ errors for the game.
Junior Sydney Logsdon then crushed the first pitch of Edinburgh pitcher Maddie Clark over the center-field fence for a home run.
The Braves tacked on two more runs in the fourth.
Sophomore Kaitlyn Williams, the No. 7 hitter, led off with a single and moved on to second base on Clark’s wild pitch. A single by freshman Kayla Lemmon and Wilhoit’s double — her third hit of the game — would complete the scoring.
Edinburgh (14-5) produced its lone hit in the first inning on a Clark single.
Both pitchers would go the distance as Clark allowed eight Braves hits, walked one and struck out seven. Knight fanned eight Lancers — including six straight in parts of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings — and surrendered two walks.
Indian Creek didn’t play Edinburgh in the 2016 county tournament but lost to the Lancers in the regular season, 9-2.
Knight, for one, didn’t want a repeat of that.
“As a team, our goal was to get Edinburgh this year. We did not want to lose to them because we lost to them last year,” she said. “We wanted to beat them.”
As for her own performance, Knight said she thought she was on top of her game.
“I think I’ve relaxed a little bit more coming back from my knee injury,” Knight said. “I thank the Lord every day because He’s the only reason why I’m out here playing this game and the reason I pitched so well tonight.”
