SOFTBALL: Logan overcomes 7 errors in 12-4 win over NW

Sandwiched between two big conference games, Logansport squared off against Northwestern on Thursday night and it was a struggle defensively for the Class 3A No. 1 Berries.

They committed seven errors but had enough talent to overcome them in a 12-4 win over the possible sectional opponent Purple Tigers at Fincher Field.

But the Berries (19-1) were not sharp defensively.

“It’s one of those things where when you’re doing the things, sometimes it’s a matter of playing against yourselves,” Logansport coach Molly Sterrett said. “So did we play our best tonight defensively? No. And unfortunately that changes the dynamic. Our hope is we grow from it and learn from it. And luckily it didn’t bite us this time and luckily we answered on the offensive side. But there's always other days and so making sure we learn from it. If nothing else it’s humbling. And they were a good team. I would argue though, that we didn’t play our best.”

The Berries have had some big games this week and they have big games ahead. They weren’t at their best Thursday but Sterrett said they are more than capable of playing better.

“A hundred percent. Sometimes it’s all in the mindset and how we warm up,” she said. “It’s all in the mindset of how we start. So you hate to go into anything with a big head, which is hard to do when we’ve now won our 18th straight. So keeping ourselves humbled, I mean things like this do humble us and thank goodness again we answered.”

Gracie Risley had her best game offensively since returning from her knee injury as she went 3-for-3 with three doubles and two runs scored. The only time she was retired was on a fly ball to the fence in center where the center fielder made a nice catch at the wall but fell to the ground allowing Aracyn Good to tag up and score all the way from second.

Good collected a double, single and two runs scored. Bianca Cortez had a double, single and RBI. Brooklynn Hagerty hit a two-run home run, her 11th blast of the season, that gave the Berries some breathing room with 9-3 lead in the fourth. Evie Kitchel added an RBI double later in the inning.

Bella Nicoles, Kate Spradling and Teagan Wolf all added a hit in the win.

All of the errors made Risley have to work harder than she should have had to on the mound. She allowed three runs (none earned) on two hits and one walk in 2 1/3 innings, striking out six.

Hagerty relieved and allowed just a seventh inning home run by sophomore Stevie-Rae Hedges. She fanned nine in 4 2/3 innings.

So on a night the defense struggled, the pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts and the offense scored 12 runs.

The Berries have bigger games ahead, starting tonight at Twin Lakes (13-11) for the Hoosier Conference championship. First pitch is at 5:30 p.m. in Monticello.

“Twin Lakes will be tough too,” Sterrett said. “They have pretty solid offensive and defensive lineups. All the way through the batting order it looks like they have pretty decent stats, so making sure we are on our A game and making sure we’re prepared ourselves.”