By Noah Dalton
MITCHELL – Mitchell High School earned wins over Bloomington South and Perry Central on Wednesday and Thursday, putting their season total to 13 victories.
On Wednesday against the Panthers, the Bluejackets led most of the game on their way to a 6-4 win.
After Bloomington South scored the game’s first run in the top of the first, following an error by Mitchell’s defense that allowed Jilliyn Gardner to reach home, the Bluejackets took the lead in the bottom of the inning, which they’d hang on to for the remainder of the play.
Malaya Tanglao led off the inning with a double, followed by a sacrifice bunt from Caitlyn Mullis to advance her to third. In the following at-bat, Avery Southern landed a base hit to left field to bring Tanglao home, tying the game.
With Southern at first, Mitchell’s next to batters, Page Mullis and Gracelynn Payton, reached base to load the bases for Emerie Russell, who drew a walk to force Southern home from third, giving Mitchell a 2-1 lead.
Bloomington South’s Kinsey Clopton led off the second inning with a solo homer to center field to knot things up at two runs before a four-run second inning would seal the game for Mitchell.
With runners on first and second with one out, Southern singled once again to bat in another run for the Bluejackets. With the bases then loaded, Mitchell managed to score in the next three straight at-bats, courtesy of RBIs from Payton and Russell, as well a fortunate error from the Panthers.
Though Bloomington South would find two more runs before the game ended, one in the fifth and the other in the seventh, it was not enough for them to overcome Mitchell’s dominant second inning.
The Bluejackets finished with seven hits in the game, with Southern and Tanglao having two. Southern was the only batter for the team to bat in multiple runs, finishing with two RBIs.
Southern also earned the win at the mound for Mitchell, throwing five innings with five hits and two earned runs allowed, striking out two.
In a similar fashion the following day, the Bluejackets bested the Commodores after taking an early lead and never looking back, ending in a 9-3 win.
Again, a four-run inning from Mitchell put them in position to emerge from the game victorious, this time coming in the first inning, when Mitchell’s first three batters reached base to kick things off for them before a single from Page Mullis brought home two runners, Caitlyn Mullis, and Tanglao. Payton grounded out in the following at-bat, giving way for Southern to score from third, with a double from Russell driving home Page Mullis for the team’s fourth run of the inning.
The Bluejackets would get two more runs in the third, when an error from Perry Central allowed two runners to score from second and third base, those being Southern and Page Mullis. Extending their lead in the sixth, Tanglao, Southern, and J Allen would each knock in a run for Mitchell, bringing them to their total of nine for the game.
With the Commodores having one final chance to tie up the game in the top of the seventh, Karsyn Coleman took the mound, striking out all three batters to end the game.
Three Mitchell batters finished with two hits to lead the team, Tanglao, Southern, and Page Mullis, who also batted in a team-high two runs for the game.
A total of four pitchers shared time at the mound for the Bluejackets, with Russell earning the win. They combined to allow eight hits and three earned runs with six strikeouts.
