photo by: Andrew Grimm

Oak Glen's Addie Smith makes contact against Madonna's Mattie Carney during the Golden Bears' victory over the Blue Dons on Thursday.

NEW MANCHESTER – The awaited debut of the new artificial turf surface at Oak Glen’s Field of Dreams Complex came at a perfect time to display the benefits of the new field.

The moderate, and at times heavy, rain that fell just after game time Thursday evening would have been more than enough to keep the Golden Bears off the old natural surface softball diamond for days in past years. Not with the new field.

Playing through the weather, Oak Glen made the debut a victorious one, pulling away from visiting Madonna for a 16-6 victory.

“This is a beautiful opportunity for our school and softball program,” Oak Glen head coach Sherrie Garner said of the new field. “We’re just thankful for the efforts that went into it. Our administration, staff, the whole community with the bond levys, give us great support.

“We talked about how the game would not have happened with the old field. It’s good not to look out and see ducks on the ponds anymore.

“It’s a beautiful field, everyone did excellent work to put this together.”

Oak Glen, now 2-0 with wins on back-to-back days to start the season, opened a 4-1 lead, fell behind 6-4 in the second, then stormed away with the victory scoring the game’s final 12 runs to bring the run rule into play.

“We got the bats going a little bit, we’re still a little bit rusty, we had some timely hitting against Wheeling Park (Wednesday) and did enough with them today,” Garner said. “We’ll get there.”

After Madonna (0-1) struck first with a Peyton Conley run off a wild pitch that was set up by her double and steal, the Bears plated four in the bottom half.

Danica Holden, who had a monster game at the dish with six RBIs, knocked a two-run triple, then scored on an error to make it 3-1. A bases-loaded walk drawn by Mikalyn Balch later in the inning made it four two-out runs.

Madonna’s rally in the top of the second started with a run crossing on an error, then a Conley drove in a pair of runs with a two-run double to even the score.

A couple batters later, Rylee Birkhimer knocked in two more with a base hit to make it 6-4 Dons.

From there, though, it was all Oak Glen.

Holden had an RBI single in the bottom of the second to get the Bears back within one, then a Neveah Heath knock was misplayed with two outs, allowing two runs to cross to put Oak Glen on top for what ended up being the final lead change.

Addie Smith had an RBI single in the third and Carney scored on an error making it 10-6.

An inning later, the Bears played six more to push the margin to 10. That rally started with a two-run Riley Bruce single, then, after another run off an error, Holden sent a ball deep down the line that bounced around in the corner, and she raced around for an inside-the-park, three-run home run that provided the final margin.

After the somewhat wild start – both teams made early pitching changes – the Bears went away from the plan to rest regular starter Mattie Carney and made a third pitching change to bring in the ace in the third inning, and she proceeded to fire three shutout innings without allowing a hit, striking out five to take the win.

“It was not my plan to pitch her,” Garner said. “The first two girls can throw strikes, too, but we were struggling a little bit to keep their hands on the ball and throw strikes and it wasn’t their night. Mattie came in with a good attitude and performed for us. She is definitely our workhorse.”

UP NEXT

Madonna: Opens the home portion of its schedule Saturday hosting Magnolia.

Oak Glen: Is back at home Saturday to host Morgantown.