Softball: Avon Lake leads Vermilion 14-11 when game is halted

AVON LAKE — Trying to beat the lousy weather by starting the game 30 minutes early, the Avon Lake and Vermilion bats kept Thursday's non-conference game from being a quick affair, as the Shoregals held a 14-11 lead with two outs in the bottom of the third inning when the game was called for rain and lightning. The teams will resume the game April 17 as part of a five-inning doubleheader. Both teams were coming off their first wins of the year with bats exploding in both, as the Sailors beat Brookside 18-5 and the Shoregals wiped out Bay 17-7. Their bats stayed hot despite the 20-degree temperature drop in the second inning. Vermilion got help in the first, scoring four runs on just a hit, a run-scoring single by Maddie Pinter. Avon Lake committed three errors in the inning. The Shoregals more than made up for their defensive miscues by cranking out nine hits in the bottom of the first to take a 10-4 lead. Briana Webster started the inning and reached on a dropped third strike, scoring on an outfield error, followed by Mary Sue Sittema's single. Carmen McMinn, who blasted a pair of home runs in the win over the Rockets, hit her third of the year, smacking a car on the bumper beyond the left-field fence. The runs kept coming for the Shoregals, who got hits from Erin Dean, a run-scoring single by Addison Dunleavy, a single by Audrey Kunzelman and a two-run double by Isabel Brunner. Sittema doubled in a run in her second at-bat of the inning, sending home Webster, who reached on a fielder's choice. McMinn crushed her second homer of the inning, going over the fence in right-center to cap the inning. The Sailors were not fazed. They came back to tie the game at 11 in the top of the third, getting three second-inning runs and four in the third. Pinter continued her hot day at the plate with a two-run double, sending Lilly Porter and Abby Gawry home, and Pinter scored on Emma Gebhardt's single up the middle. Myah Perry started the third-inning rally, getting hit by a pitch and coming home on a Gawry fielder's choice. Two more runs came home on Pinter's third hit and an outfield error to tie it. The Shoregals came right back in the bottom half of the third after Sittema led off the inning with a triple and McMinn was intentionally walked. Dean sent one run home with a ground ball to second and McMinn scored on a wild pitch in the driving wind and rain. Porter got a strikeout for the second out, but Kunzelman singled to left, stole second and came home on a double down the left-field line by Iasabelle Schilens in the last at-bat of the game.