Red Devils earn split with No. 18 Butler

Register/Jocelyn Sheets All smiles. Autumn Lamle, Allen County Community College sophomore, smiles as she crosses the plate with the winning run in a 2-1 victory in nine innings over 18th-ranked Butler Community College.

Register/Jocelyn Sheets ACCC sophomore Shawna Blakesley (with helmet) is greeted by teammates and head coach Ed Wilkerson after delivering a two-out double to drive in the winning run. Allen County split a doubleheader at home Thursday with Butler.

Two outs and it’s the bottom of the ninth in a 1-1 tie game. That means Allen County Community College’s Red Devils had taken the 18th-ranked Butler Community College Lady Grizzlies to extra innings.
Sophomore Shawna Blakesley stepped into the batter’s box to hit for the Red Devils. Autumn Lamle, a sophomore, was on second base with the potential winning run.
Lamle had singled with freshman Brandie Hutcheson on second to start the inning. Hutcheson was at second because of the tie-breaker rule. ACCC head coach Ed Wilkerson sent Hutcheson home on the base hit but she was tagged out at the plate. Lamle went to second on the play.
Freshman Jenna Sigg had struck out so it was up to Blakesley to keep things going. Without a hit, the first game of Thursday’s home doubleheader would go to another extra inning.
Blakesley ended the game. She got a pitch she liked and belted a double over the head of Butler’s center fielder. Lamle scored easily to give ACCC a 2-1 victory.
The Red Devils handed the Lady Grizzlies their first loss of the season.
“It was a good win for us. We played pretty good defensively throughout the two games. I would have liked to see us hit more consistently through the lineup,” Wilkerson said.
“This early in the season we’re showing progress.”
Freshman Lenzie Boring pitched all nine innings for Allen County. She allowed the one run on five hits and recorded 10 strikeouts for the win.
Butler scored its run on two singles in the first inning. Then the Red Devils shut the Lady Grizzlies down, working out of a couple of difficult situations along the way.
Allen County tied the game in the sixth inning. With one out, freshman Megan Dillow reached on an error and stole second base. Kassie Summers, a sophomore, singled and Hutcheson delivered an RBI base hit.
Both teams had runners in scoring position in the seventh but couldn’t score. When the teams went into extra innings, starting with the eighth, the leadoff hitter was awarded second on the tiebreaker rule.
Butler moved the base-runner to third and had two on in the top of the ninth with no outs. Boring got a fly ball, a strikeout and another fly ball to get out of trouble.
Blakesley had a single along with the game-winning double. Also with a single each were Summers, Lamle, sophomore Kristina Popejoy, Boring, freshman Kelci Owens and Hutcheson.
The second game didn’t go as well for the Red Devils. Butler scored two runs in the first inning and added three in the second. With three more in the six-th, the Lady Grizzlies (6-1) won 8-1.
Allen County scored its run in the first inning. Freshman Jori Graf walked to start the inning and Hutcheson had a base hit.
With two gone, Sigg drove in the run with a single. Sigg had two base hits in the game as did Lamle. The other hit was a single by Blakesley.
Sophomore Brianne Campbell took the pitching loss. She pitched six inn-ings, allowing  eight runs on 10 hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Sophomore Amy McAfee pitched one inning, giving up one hit and walking one.
“Our pitchers continue to settle down and get more comfortable,” Wilkerson said. “We’ve cut down on the walks. In the first two doubleheaders, we gave up a lot of walks but the last two  doubleheaders, we limited those and that’s a good sign.”
Allen County is 5-3 overall. The Red Devils travel to Kansas City, Mo., to play Maplewoods Community College Saturday.