High school softball: Defense the difference as Amherst downs Midview

AMHERST — Defense was the key on both sides during Amherst's 10-4 victory over Midview on Tuesday night. The Comets made several strong plays to stifle Midview's offensive momentum while the Middies committed six errors in a tough road matchup against the five-time defending Southwestern Conference champions. "We tell the girls all the time, if we play defense, we're going to keep ourselves in ballgames, we're going to give ourselves a chance to win," Comets coach Lacey Reichert said. "Throughout the course of five games we've played, with the exception of one inning of hiccups, we've played good defense." The top highlight came from right fielder Brianna Sadler, who sprinted about 30 yards and made a diving catch on a line drive in the gap to end the sixth inning. Shortstop Cassidy Kettleman made two other diving catches and several more solid defensive hustle plays. "We just love to get dirty," Kettleman said. "I mean, that's the big goal — go all out 110, 120 percent every single play even if it's foul or if it's a close play because you know that you have your teammates backing you up if you're making those plays." Kettleman is used to playing solid defense, just not in the infield. The Indiana University commit played center field the first three years of her high school career. "I'm definitely getting a lot more action … gotta love that," she said. "It's basically the same position, diving left and right, covering a lot of ground, but just being in charge of the infield instead of the outfield. "My pitcher (Sierra Dorobek) is who is making those little bloopers I get to make those great plays on, like, that's all her. She's the one creating those plays for me." While Dorobek and the defense were limiting the damage Midview created offensively, the Comets' bats put the game away with three big innings — a four-run second, a three-run fifth and a three-run sixth. Kettleman went 4-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and three stolen bases, while Lacie Stottlemire, Brianna Waldecki and Nevaeh Sadler all had two hits. "We have two girls (Stottlemire and Waldecki) who haven't been doing a whole lot offensively this year," Reichert said. "They've been struggling offensively, but they haven't been pressing, they've worked hard and they haven't given up on themselves. They came out to play today and I'm hoping that's the start of a breakout season for both of them." Waldecki doubled in the second inning and hit a towering sacrifice fly to center in the fifth, while Stottlemire led off the second with a single past third base before hitting a two-run blast over the center field fence in the sixth. "It felt really good," Stottlemire said of her home run. "I didn't think it was gone. I was kind of just sprinting … but I haven't been doing well at the plate so that felt really good." The Middies got a runner on base in every inning and scored runs in four of the seven, but simply couldn't string enough hits together for the big inning. Lily Tomasheski led the offensive attack with a 3-for-3 outing — including a double, an RBI and a run scored — while Jasmine Willis had two hits, including a double, and Olivia DiFranco, Morgan Rozanski and Briana Farkas all drove in runs. "I told the girls since Day 1, we have great potential in this lineup," Middies coach Cassie Haight said. "We kept hitting every inning, we were putting the ball in play and Amherst made some great plays out there defensively. But we were moving girls and I can't be upset about that." The only thing that may have been disconcerting for the coach and her players were the six errors, including a pair of dropped pop-ups in the infield. "We are missing some girls right now and some of my younger girls are going on the field and playing positions that they haven't practiced at this year," Haight said. "We had a great team from the first to the fifth inning — they competed, they went out there and they had no fear. Then the pressure started coming in the sixth and seventh innings and the errors started stacking up … we kind of beat ourselves." Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on Twitter.