The Crane Lady Pirates handily defeated the Chadwick Lady Cardinals, 15-0, on Monday night. Chadwick, who had been playing well as of late, was not as effective against a much better Crane team. Crane’s pitcher, freshman Olivia Edwards, no-hit the Cardinals through three innings while her team had the offense clicking.
Chadwick was the visitor tonight even though the game was played on their field. Crane’s field was flooded during the off-season and will not be ready for play this season.
“Not to take anything away from other teams, but Crane is, by far, the best team we’ve played,” said Chadwick coach Ronnie Ray. “This is the one loss that I think we should have lost. Crane hit the fire out of the ball.”
Edwards was one batter short of having a perfect game through three innings. She hit one batter while striking out four.
“I had a good defense behind me and we played pretty good,” said Edwards. “My fastball and changeup were working for me tonight.”
Crane, who is known for their offense, had 16 hits for the game, including 12 in the second inning. Sophomore Maddie Moreland was 3-3 on the night, including the hit that put them up 15.
“We like to hit the ball, we need to hit the ball every single time because we can’t just rely on our pitcher,” said Moreland. “We need to back her up on our defense, too. Hitting is my best thing. We do bunt against some teams but didn’t feel like we needed to tonight.”
Crane coach Hannah Key was pleased not only with her team’s offensive production but also the error-free game.
“We just came out and we were ready to play,” said Key. “Saturday we couldn’t hit, we were really flat, and tonight they hit the crap out of the ball. That’s how we’ve won a lot of our games this year is by hitting. We’ve hit the ball really well this year, but Olivia, she throws the ball outstanding and tonight we had defense to back her up. That’s the key to us winning, us playing defense behind her.”
“Abbie (Stricker) is a great pitcher; I think she could be an All-State pitcher for 1A softball,” said Ray. “She threw strikes, didn’t walk any of them, but they hit the fire out of it. Their pitcher, you’ve got to tip your hat to her because she threw strikes, she threw hard and we put it in play a couple times and they made the plays. That’s how it goes. Half of my team has never played before, so a lot of the fundamentals aren’t there. We start four girls who have never played. I see a lot of potential for the future but they’re just not there yet.”
With Districts ready to start next week, Crane is gearing up for a possible district run.
“Tomorrow we play Hurley at their place and then we start districts on Monday,” said Key. “We are seeded third and play Galena at Forsyth at 7:00.”
Chadwick 0 Crane 15
Chadwick 000 — 0
Crane 1(12)2 — 15
