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Ball's no-hitter lifts Fayette to victory at Paris

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 9/29/20

It was an off-day for the Falcon offense in Paris on Tuesday as Fayette managed just three runs on four hits.

That turned out to be more than enough as Jordyn Ball was literally unhittable in the …

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Ball's no-hitter lifts Fayette to victory at Paris

Posted

It was an off-day for the Falcon offense in Paris on Tuesday as Fayette managed just three runs on four hits.

That turned out to be more than enough as Jordyn Ball was literally unhittable in the circle.

The Falcon junior struck out 13 batters on the way to a no-hitter and a 3-0 Fayette victory.

“I could really tell that offense was kind of lacking, and so I know that’s when I need to step up, because I know my defense will work hard,” Ball said.

“Honestly, all of my pitches were working tonight, so that was really nice. It was just trusting your pitches and trusting your defense.”

Ball worked ahead in the count all night, throwing first-pitch strikes to 17 of 24 batters.

She walked two batters and two reached base on error.

Sophomore catcher Addison Newell said that Ball pitched the no-hitter with a back issue that was giving her problems.

“She did really well working through that,” Newell said. “And she did really well with her placement tonight.”

Fayette got on the scoreboard in the first inning when Newell singled, stole second and scored on an error.

With two outs in the second inning, Abby Nation hit a single to center field. Preslee Sunderland reached base on an error to score a run, but injured her ankle sliding into second base. Leah Lembke took her place on base and scored when Newell hit a fly ball into right field and reached on an error as well.

The Falcons had just one more hit over the final five innings. Fayette coach Mike James credited solid pitching from Coyote starter Gracie Hatton, who struck out 10.

“She pitches well when they play us,” James said. “We just couldn’t get a lot of people on base, to her credit, and when we did, we didn’t get a lot of them in.

“Jordyn was pretty much dominant, and it was lucky she was, because it wasn’t our best offensive night. I thought we played pretty good defense except for a mistake here or there.”

Breanna Estes and Kylea Hoover each had a hit and Megan Lewis had the RBI in the first inning.

“It was one of those nights where the bats were quiet,” James said. “But it’s a sign of a good team when Jordyn and the defense kind of picked up the offense.”

Next up:

Fayette (14-2) will host Marceline on Thursday in a game with Lewis & Clark Conference title implications.

A win would put Fayette into a tie for first place in the conference, but a loss would put the Falcons two games behind undefeated Marceline (15-0).

 “You’ve got to not get blitzed early, and you’ve got to keep their top of the order off the bases, because they’ve got some girls in the middle that can thump it,” James said about facing the Lady Tigers.

Fayette defeated Marceline 8-6 last year with a pair of 3-run homers from Estes and Ball in the sixth inning.

“Last year we fell behind them and we were able to rally back, I don’t think that’s the recipe to beat Marceline though,” James said.

The Lady Tigers are 5-0 in conference with a 15-2 win over the Class 1 defending state champion Salisbury Panthers.

“They’re a really good team,” James said. “If they play their best and we play our best, I think it will be a heck of a ball game. We’ve got to swing the bats a little better than we did tonight if we’re going to have a shot at it.”

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