The Lady Patriots hammered out 13 hits and smacked two homers to easily defeat Rocky River High School in a varsity softball game held at Rocky River.  Meanwhile, Independence High starting pitcher Kayla Douglas pitched a scoreless three innings giving up only one hit and one walk.  Also, Jaylin Adkins pitched two solid innings giving up an infield hit and walked one batter.

In the first inning with two outs and a runner on second base freshman Jaylin Adkins hit her first homer of the season over the left field fence to give Indy a 2-0 lead.  In the second inning the Lady Patriots added 3 more runs when Brianna Grant with two outs hit a double to drive in two runs, and Huntleigh Williams followed with an RBI single up the middle.  There were no runs scored in the third inning by either team and the Patriots had a comfortable 5-0 lead.

However, in the fourth inning Independence broke the game wide open scoring 5 runs on four hits with the big blow from Brianna Grant hitting a home run to deep left center field for 2 RBI’s.  Olivia Pauldin followed with a single driving in another run for her first RBI of the game with a runner on second base.  The other two runs scored were unearned giving Indy a commanding 10-0 lead.

In the fifth inning the flood gates opened when Kingsley Reardon singled, Leah Renn was hit by a pitch and Olivia Pauldin hit a hard smash down the right field line to drive in Reardon for her second RBI.  With runners now on second and third Tia Montalto hit an infield single to drive in Renn.  Then Laikyn Berry hit a sacrifice fly to score Pauldin who tagged from third base.  Kendall Anderson hit an RBI single for the fourth run of the inning and a passed ball scored the final run to complete all the scoring.  The Lady Patriots now were leading 15-0 with Rocky River coming to bat in the final inning of the game.  With two outs and a runner on third base a week ground ball ended the contest.

Jaylin Adkins went 2-3 with 2 RBI’s,  Olivia Pauldin 2-4 with 2 RBI’s, Brianna Grant 2-4 with 2 RBI’s, Kendall Anderson 2-3 with 1 RBI, and key contributions from Huntleigh Williams, Sarah Smith, Tia Montalto and Laikyn Berry.  This victory was a complete team effort as every player on the roster made a contribution.

Independence will now be playing their arch rival Butler for the conference championship at home on Thursday night April 27th at 5:30.  This will be the rubber match as both teams split in their previous matchups.