On a night honoring the lone senior, Maddie VanSickle, the Southeast Valley softball team showed up and showed out against conference foe, South Central Calhoun. The Jags defeated the Titans after three innings of play by a score of 13-1. 

The night was dedicated to Maddie VanSickle who started in the circle and she utterly dominated the competition. VanSickle threw three complete innings facing 14 batters. Of the 14, Maddie managed to strike out six of them and only walked one while allowing just three hits and one run (unearned).

 The Jaguar bats were hot from the start and hitting seemed to be the contagious bug that everybody caught! In the first inning of play, the Jags tallied four runs. Ellie Nolte led things off with a walk and a stolen base followed by Lauren Eslick reaching safely after being hit by a pitch. Maddie Vansickle drove in Nolte from second on her single hit up the middle and on the throw, advanced to second base while Eslick found herself on third. Freshman Camryn Lane would run for VanSickle. Both Eslick and Lane would reach home on a hard hit single off the bat of junior catcher Jordyn Rowley. After a stolen base would land Rowley on second, freshman Rian Schlief stepped into the box and smashed a triple to the right side of the field, scoring Rowley from second. Unfortunately, Schlief would be stranded at third to end the first inning. 

The Jags were not done at four at four runs. They scored eight more runs in the second inning seeing homeruns from both Ellie Nolte and sophomore Chloe Lambert. Jordyn Rowley, Alex Kitchen, and Leilah Olson also earned a pair of extra base hits, Rowley with a triple and Olson and Kitchen doubles. Rian Schlief and Kenna Scott singled in the same inning and each stole a base. 

The final run of the inning would come from a solo shot over the left field fence from Lauren Eslick. Eslick’s homerun marked the third homerun of the game and the sixth overall extra-base hit from the Jaguar offense. 

Southeast Valley turns around to play bright and early in the South Hamilton Hawk Softball Tournament at nine o’clock in the morning on Saturday, June 24th. The Jags are set to play two games.