Springs Valley Community High School

For three innings, the Springs Valley softball team was stagnant. The Blackhawks had started slowly on the road at Orleans and it felt like they needed something, anything, to get them going against their county rival. Lily Hickman, who’d kept the Bulldogs at bay from the pitcher’s circle, stepped to the plate in the top of the fourth and gave them that spark. She worked the count, then unleashed on a mistake pitch. The ball flew over the fence, her teammates formed a mob around home plate, and the Blackhawks never looked back. They’d ride that home run from Hickman, then another in the fifth inning as well as 14 strikeouts from the sophomore on the other side of the ball to victory, beating Orleans 10-2. “Lily’s a leader. I don’t know that she’s truly bought into the fact that she is yet or not, but when they see that Lily’s on they know that they’ve got that out in front of them and it makes their job easier,” Springs Valley coach Jill Stephens said. “I think that seeing her do things makes them believe. It just lights the rest of the team on fire.” While Hickman did a lot of the heavy lifting for Springs Valley at the plate — she went 2-4 with the two homers and four runs batted in — the Blackhawks were strong as a team with the bat in their hands on Tuesday night. Tynley Kluesner went 2-4 with a double and an RBI. Bostyn Rowlett smacked a pair of doubles on her way to a 2-4, one RBI performance. Ashlyn Bonta went 2-4 with an RBI. Then there was Maci Eckerty. The freshman, a late addition to this team, has been red hot since cracking the varsity lineup. She’s gone 4-9 in four games, driving in four runs and stealing three bases in the process. Against Orleans she was particularly impactful, going 1-3 with her second triple of the season, two runs batted in, a hit by pitch, and two stolen bases. It seems like adding her into the mix has been exactly what the Blackhawks needed at this point in the season. “She’s never played with us, but it feels like she’s back where she should be, like we were missing her,” Stephens said. “She’s that added spark that we need. Defensively we can put her anywhere we need her, she’s practicing pitching, and she adds a little oomph to our team. She’s going to be one of our silent leaders.” The Blackhawks have now scored at least nine runs in four of their last five games including big victories over Mitchell, Paoli, and Orleans. It’s an incredibly promising trend for a team that broke the nine-run mark just once in its first eight games and it’s been fueled by the lineup’s depth. Where early in the season it was just Hickman or Brynne Buchanan or Emri Allen or Kluesner, now it’s nine or more players taking competitive at-bats and making opposing defenses work. Eckerty’s been big in that, as has Rowlett. Bonta’s last two games have been two of her best this season. It even extends to those who were on the bench on Tuesday. Karson Dalton came on as a pinch hitter and got a knock. It’s forcing Springs Valley’s coaches to make some decisions about playing time and they’re more than happy about having that problem. “There was a time in the season when putting together a cohesive batting lineup wasn’t an easy job. It felt like the top of the lineup would click no matter who we had and then things would fall off at the bottom,” Stephens said. “That’s not what’s going on right now. Now we have good personnel issues where everybody’s hitting and there just aren’t enough spaces for everybody. Tonight Karson and Molly kind of flip-flopped with offense and defense based on what we needed at that point and it’s nice to have the girls to be able to do that.” Springs Valley (7-6, 5-1 PLAC) is now in wait-and-see mode in the race for the Patoka Lake Athletic Conference. The Blackhawks have the most wins at the moment, but undefeated Perry Central still has a few games left to play. If the Commodores lose to either Mitchell or West Washington, both also title contenders who already have losses, the Blackhawks will clinch a share of the crown. If they can become champions, it would be just the fifth time in program history they’ve done so and the first since 2011. Either way, their recent success — a 14-4 PLAC record over the last three years — has been huge for a program that’s trying to continue building itself up. “The number-one goal was a winning season, number-two goal was winning the conference, and number three is sectional. The fact that we’re right there and kind of sitting back to wait and see what else happens is great,” Stephens said. “It’s also huge for our program to show that we’re building and that we’re moving forward. There are those little girls who are playing now and can look at something that they want to be a part of when they get older.” BLACKHAWKS 10, BULLDOGS 2 SPRINGS VALLEY;|;ORLEANS ;AB;R;H;BI;|;;AB;R;H;BI Buchanan ss;4;1;1;0;|;Abel ss, c, p;2;1;1;1 Allen cf;4;1;1;0;|;Spires cf, ss;4;0;0;0 Hickman p;4;2;2;4;|;Rutherford p, c;2;0;0;1 Kluesner 1b;4;2;2;1;|;Cline c, ss, cf;3;0;1;0 Rowlett lf;4;2;2;1;|;Samsil cf;0;0;0;0 Eckerty 3b;3;1;1;2;|;Adams 1b;1;0;0;0 Tucker rf;1;0;0;0;|;Hopper 3b;3;0;0;0 Dalton ph, rf;2;0;1;1;|;Nicholas 2b;1;1;0;0 Pantoja c;4;0;0;0;|;Holt rf;3;0;1;0 Bonta 2b;4;1;2;1;|;Mahan lf;3;0;0;0 Totals34;10;12;10;|;Totals;22;2;3;2 Springs Valley (7-6);000;331;3—10 Orleans (7-7);000;010;1—2 E: Orleans 1, Springs Valley 0. DP: Buchanan, Kluesner. LOB: Orleans 8, Springs Valley 5. 2B: Rowlett 2, Kluesner, Holt. 3B: Eckerty. HR: Hickman 2, Abel. SB: Dalton 2, Eckerty 2, Bonta, Abel, Cline. CS: Cline. ;;IP;H;R;ER;BB;SO Springs Valley;Hickman (W, 7-5);7.0;3;2;2;8;14 Orleans;Rutherford (L);4.1;7;6;6;0;9 ;Abel;2.2;5;4;4;0;4 HBP: Dalton (by Abel), Eckerty (by Abel), Rutherford (by Hickman).