Rams win first state tourney game

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com
The Ram softball team won their first game at the 2015 state softball tournament 5-0 over Crestwood, but the score is not really indicative of how dominant they were. The Cadets only had two base runners the entire game due to an outstanding pitching performance from Marissa Promes and flawless defense from the rest of the Ram team. Promes may have only fanned six of the 23 batters that she faced, but the balls that she was serving up had a lot of movement, and most of the Crestwood players that did put the bat on the ball could not make good contact, so their hits never made it to the outfield grass.
Greene County was stymied at the plate for the first two innings, but Sydney Koch led off the third inning with a single, and five other Ram players followed her lead. Carleigh Paup slapped a single, Kayla Mobley had an infield hit, and Emily Christensen drove in two runners with another solid single. Tressa Rasmussen increased the lead to 4-0 when she smashed a 2 RBI double to the fence, and Emma Saddoris made the lead 5-0 when she ripped a single and drove in Rasmussen from second. Greene County would get a single from Bailey Godwin in the fourth, a double from Hannah Onken in the fifth, and singles from Carleigh Paup and Marissa Promes in the sixth, but none of those hits scored any more runs.
“ I was really proud of our girls today. Marissa really pitched well, and our defense was great,” said Coach Tom Kennedy. “All of our starters had at least one hit, and Marissa pitching a two hit shut out is a good start for the tournament. We had a great crowd today. They were really loud, and it made the game a lot of fun.”
The Rams will play Benton Community on Thursday at 1 p.m. The Benton Bobcats improved their record to 41-3 by defeating Mount Vernon 5-2 in the game that followed Greene County’s victory.