26-05-2025
Defense has carried Lapel softball. And the gloves were on point again Monday.
ELWOOD — Lapel softball has preached defense all season. It's part of the team's foundation and there's not one position that does not have coach AJ Balser's full confidence. There are no weak spots, he said Monday afternoon, and with that dependability comes versatility, allowing him to move pieces around based on their pitcher (they have nine) and specific matchups.
With sophomore Addie Bodenhorn in the circle — a pitcher who prefers pitching for flyouts to racking up the strikeouts — the Bulldogs delivered another masterpiece in the Class 2A Sectional 39 opener vs. Frankton.
Bodenhorn faced 22 batters Monday. She struck out two of them and of the 20 who put the ball in play, 19 were retired (14 via fly out or pop out). The one exception: A single to left with two outs in the first.
Bodenhorn was excellent. The defense was perfect. And defending 2A state runner-up Lapel advanced to the sectional semifinals with a 6-0 win over its county rival.
"Our defense has really carried our team this season," said infielder Paige Stires, who has two errors on 74 chances (.973 fielding percentage). "Our bats have been pretty slow, so having a great defense that is helping us win these games and keeping teams off the scoreboard has been a huge help."
The defense displayed at Elwood High School was nothing new for the Bulldogs (20-6), who boast a team fielding percentage of .949 with 34 errors on 668 chances. They've gone error-free in 10 games this season — zero errors in three of their past five games — and been charged with one or fewer in 18.
That makes life exponentially less stressful for their pitchers, obviously, and fits perfectly with an arm like Bodenhorn, who's allowed just two earned runs (four total) on 22 hits and struck out 31 in her 41 innings since spring break (she did not pitch the first leg of the season due to injury).
If Bodenhorn's not hitting her spots, not getting those fly outs she wants, she knows her defense will be there to pick her up.
"We know that we have to have her back," said senior middle infielder Tatum Harper, who converted her three chances in the field Monday. "She's working really hard on the mound to give us those opportunities to get those outs, so it's really just working with her."
"We're all pretty confident in Addie when she's on the mound because we know she's confident in us to make the plays," Stires added. "It gives us a boost of energy when our pitcher knows we have her back."
Lapel's dependable defense has also helped it weather an inconsistent season offensively. They're batting .337 as a team with 250 hits and were shutout on only three hits in their penultimate regular-season game vs. Shenandoah.
The Bulldogs were putting the ball in play vs. Frankton, and capitalized on their opponent's four fielding errors, generating a couple runs through the first five innings before the bottom half of the lineup initiated a four-run rally in the sixth. Of Lapel's 10 hits, four came from their 7-8-9 hitters (Delaney Balser, Ella Reed and Jama Everman), with Everman collecting two hits and two runs.
The team's 1-2 hitters, Harper and Stires, posted two hits and two RBIs, respectively.
"We have to be able to put bunts in play and make the other team make plays. Knowing situations and things like that has been a challenge for us, but we're catching on at the right time," Balser said. "We've worked on those situational things quite a bit and I think it's starting to stick."
Lapel will face Taylor (0-19) in the sectional semifinals Tuesday at 5 p.m.
