It’s been a slow start for sophomore pitcher Sarah Tyre, who missed the first few games this season, but now that she’s back on the mound, she said she couldn’t be more pleased to be doing what she loves.
Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT:
Sophomore pitcher Sarah Tyre wheels in a pitch in Tuesday’s game against Red Lion Christian Academy. Tyre had eight strikeouts in Indian River’s 10-0 shutout.
“I’m so happy to be back out here,” said Tyre. “I just want to be the best that I can. When I’m out here, I give 100 percent, and that’s all that I can do.”
Tyre only allowed three hits in Tuesday’s game hosting Red Lion Christian Academy. She chalked up eight strikeouts before the game was called, once again in the fifth inning, with the final score at 10-0. The triumph was the fourth mercy-rule win of the season for the Indians, and their sixth season win overall.
Right-fielder Hilary Hawkins, first-baseman Jordan Warrington and Tyre each brought in two runs to help IR. Lizzy Handy and Haley Brennan also contributed RBI’s to give the Indians the shutout victory.
“This was a really nice win for us,” said Indian River Head Coach Mark Browne. “Red Lion is a good ball club. Unfortunately, they were missing some starters today.”
Indian River’s win on Tuesday was a welcome after they came out 1-1 on Monday, April 9, in the Sussex Tech Invitational at Sports at the Beach in Rehoboth. Their dominating 17-1 victory over Century High of Maryland looked to make it a victorious day, but a hard-fought 12-10 loss to Cape Henlopen vanquished those thoughts.
If playing back-to-back games wasn’t hard enough for the Lady Indians, the bitter cold that shot through was sure to give them some troubles.
“It’s never any fun to play in this weather,” said Browne on Monday, “but it’s a little more tolerable when you can come away with a W. I was really proud with how tough the girls played in the brutal weather. We hung in there well enough in that second game, where we could have hung our heads and given up.”
“Cape’s a good team,” said Tyre, in response to Monday’s fall. “We’ve faced them in the past and won against them last year. They’re really competitive and we just came up short.” While not influential in the season’s schedule, the games against Century and Cape will count towards Indian River’s seeding in the state tournament.
Monday’s invitational was originally planned for Saturday, but biting wind and flurries forced a reschedule that several teams could not make. The drop of teams came as a setback for hosting Sussex Tech, whose opponents were no-shows, forcing cancellations of their games.
Though the out-of-conference loss to Cape was discouraging, it came as a change of pace for the Indian River team.
“We’ve been on the winning side of the blowouts and the losing side of one,” said Browne. “It’s nice to see some more competitive softball.”
With their 6-1 record on the season, Indian River hoped to capitalize this past Thursday against Nandua before playing at Caesar Rodney on Tuesday and hosting Laurel on Thursday.