CLYDE — Eastwood softball swept a doubleheader from Clyde and Mansfield Madison at Clyde’s newly rededicated Joe Wilson Field Saturday.
The Eagles, who have won five of their last six games, defeated Madison, 5-3, and then held on to defeat Clyde, 4-3, in the first game ever played under the newly christened lights at Wilson Field.
Eastwood pitcher Cassi Kieper got both complete-game wins in the circle, eclipsing the 700 strikeout mark for her career in the opener against Madison.
“I know my team was behind my back and it was a team effort to win the two games today,” Kieper said.
Against Madison, Kieper struck out 11, walked two, and allowed five hits and two earned runs. In the win over Clyde, Kieper struck out seven, walked none, allowed eight hits and two earned runs.
Against the Fliers, she admitted throwing with a little more velocity in the seventh after Ella Howey hit a two-run home run over the left field fence to make it a one-run game in the sixth inning.
In the seventh, Kieper struck out two of Clyde’s top hitters, Taitum Jeffrey and Kennedi Long, who had already provided three of the Fliers’ hits and an RBI. Long reached base three of her four times at the plate, except for the seventh inning strikeout.
“‘Cass’ pitched really well today — I think a little harder than she has and a little more confident and we had some clutch hits when we needed to hit them,” Eastwood coach Joe Wyant said.
Eastwood immediately went to work during their first plate appearance. Addyson Bowe led off with a base hit to right field, stole second, and advanced to third and scored when Lily Escobedo reached on an error.
Escobedo stole second and ultimately scored on a sacrifice bunt by Makenzie Grover, giving the Eagles a 2-0 cushion right away. Wyant expects that to be a trademark of this year’s team.
“We played small ball the first inning and got two runs, which really helped us, and we’ve been doing that all year, playing more small ball because we have some young kids who are inconsistent hitting right now,” Wyant said. “But we are coming through and we’re getting better.”
The combination of the athletic Bowe leading off and the team’s top hitter, Escobedo, batting second is already proving to be successful this season.
“She (Bowe) is a solid hitter, she has good power, she runs well, and she has 10 stolen bases already this year,” Wyant said.
“I steal her every time because she has the best hitter in the league behind her. Lily is hitting over .700 in 10 games now, and Lily is something else hitting the ball. So she steals, we usually score, and we are always up 1-0.”
The same thing happened in the win over Madison. Bowe reached on a walk, stole second, and scored on an RBI base hit to left field by Escobedo.
For the day, Bowe was 4-for-7 with a double, five stolen bases, and she scored four runs, while Escobedo was 3-for-6 with a stolen base, two RBIs, and she reached on 6-of-8 plate appearances.
Cynthea Kasdorph was a wrecking crew at the plate, too, with two doubles and three RBI for the day.
Against Clyde, Grover had a base hit, RBI, and sacrifice, Karly Wasserman had a base hit and scored, and Makayla Hady had a stolen base and reached twice, on a walk and an error.
Even though the Fliers outhit the Eagles, 8-6, Clyde was having the same issue they had in their opening game, a 12-1 loss to Madison. Still, Clyde coach Marc Marshall liked the way his team played against Eastwood.
“It was a good ballgame,” Marshall said. “We played a lot better than we had the past two games. We just couldn’t get the key hit and today we were 2-for-18 with players in scoring position in both games.
“Last time I checked if you don’t score any runs you can’t win. I’m not sure if that is right or not but that is what I found out,” Marshall sarcastically added.
Against the Rams, Wasserman was 2-for-3 and scored twice and Kieper had a sacrifice bunt that helped score a run.
Marshall said it was a no-brainer for Clyde to invite Eastwood to be a part of the first night game at Wilson Field, which not only inaugurated the lights but also the artificial turf installed by Maumee Bay Turf Center.
“Joe is a good guy — we go way back,” Marshall said. “He does a very good job with his kids. They always have a hard-nosed team and they don’t make very many mistakes.”
Eastwood evens out its record at 5-5 with the two wins, but that was after an 0-4 start during their spring trip to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
“I think we stuck together because we were a little low,” Wyant said. “We’ve never been, since I’ve been at Eastwood, ever 0-4. I don’t know if we ever started out 0-and-anything.”
However, their competition in Tennessee was nothing to be ashamed of.
“The first game we played a state champion team (13-0 loss to Plainview) from Alabama and our last game was against another team (18-8 loss to Cullman) that was in the same league as them,” Wyant said.
“They were good hitting teams. We had a couple chances to win. We lost one game 2-1 (Tremont) and another game 8-5 (Canton).”
Since returning the Eagles defeated Fremont Ross, 14-1, Elmwood, 8-6, and Fostoria, 6-2, only to lose to Oak Harbor, 12-1.
“We did have a little rough time down in Tennessee,” Kieper said. “We came back and we got to work, working on our fielding, working on catching pop flies and really focusing on the tees when we are hitting in practice.”
Wyant added, “Our kids are coming together and we are growing, because I only have three starters back, so I put six people in who have never been on a varsity field.
“Now eight games in, we came here, because I was afraid we could be going 0-2 tonight because they both have nice records, nice teams, and our kids came through.”
Madison is 5-5 after splitting two games Saturday and Clyde falls to 6-4.
