CHESTERTON | After giving up a run in the top of the first to LaPorte, the Chesterton softball team answered back in a big way in the bottom of the inning.
The Trojans scored five runs in the bottom part of the frame, including a two-run home run from Sarah Richards, on the way to 7-1 victory over the Slicers in a Duneland Athletic Conference game Friday.
"It really set the table," Chesterton coach LouAnn Hopson said of the first-inning outburst. "We batted through the order that inning."
The Trojans (13-8, 7-4 DAC) put the first three hitters on base to lead off the bottom of the first. Megan Tymorek singled; Sammie Howard reached on a throwing error, and Megan Matheny put Chesterton ahead for good with a two-run double down the left field line that was just fair.
"I just picked out my pitch, like we've been working on, and just hit it," Matheny said.
"She did an exceptional job of finding the pitch she could drive," Hopson said.
Mallory McKee added a run-scoring single, and then, with two out, Richards hit a 1-1 pitch from LaPorte starter Hannah Fuller that hit the yellow line at the top of the fence in left center and bounced over for a home run.
Matheny, who finished 2-for-2 with a walk, capped the scoring with a two-run double in the second.
Tymorek tossed a three-hitter in the circle. She struck out 10 and didn't issue a walk. She needed just 78 pitches to get through the complete game. She recorded two strikeouts in three innings.
"Her last three outings in particular have been really outstanding," Hopson said.
Samantha Becker drove in the lone run for the Slicers (12-9, 5-7 DAC), who have lost six consecutive games. She singled home Alexis Botsford with one out in the first.
"Sometimes slumps are slumps, and it's hard to get out of," LaPorte coach Bob Severs said. "And sometimes teams get in slumps, but you have to fight through it."
Fuller didn't get out of the first inning for LaPorte, giving up five runs and five hits in 2/3 of an inning. Meghan Bunch allowed just one hit in 5 1/3 innings of relief and didn't give up a hit after the second inning.
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