No. 2 CR softball edged by Cape 3-2 in Henlopen North battle

CAMDEN – With Riley Shields and Alyssa Ball on the mound for Cape Henlopen and second-ranked Caesar Rodney respectively on Tuesday, runs were at a premium.

So when a scoring chance presented itself, someone had to deliver.

The Vikings took advantage of their first opportunity in the third inning when they scored a pair of runs on Sydney Otlowski’s single that take the lead, and they never trailed from that point to earn a 3-2 victory over the host Riders on Tuesday afternoon in Henlopen North softball action.

“It was a situation where we scraped and manufactured some runs. (Sydney) Otlowski came through just when we needed,” Vikings head coach Jeff Evans said. “We knew that both pitchers were going to be crafty and tough today, and they were. Both defenses were pretty solid. Runs were hard come by, and you really had to manufacture them.”

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Reagan Jackson and Kira Vitella started the frame by reaching via a single and an error respectively, and after Samantha Frederick was inserted to run for Jackson, Jessica Evans moved them up a base with a sacrifice bunt. Otlowski followed with a hard-hit ground ball up that middle for a single, driving in Frederick and Vitella to give Cape Henlopen a 2-0 lead.

“I just tried to calm down, and I’ve really been focusing on hitting ground balls because they’re harder to field and throw out,” Otlowski said. “I definitely didn’t want to pop out and really wanted to move my runners around because that was my job.”

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the fourth inning when Caesar Rodney scored.

CR’s Rosa’Lynn Burton singled to lead off the frame and moved to second on an error, and touched home on Kendall Lewis’ single to cut the lead in half.

Cape Henlopen (5-2) added an insurance run in the sixth inning when Jordyn Virden scored on a Kaeli O’Neill-Willey single, and that run proved to be important as the Riders scored in the bottom half of the inning on an Alexxys Harris single.

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Caesar Rodney threatened in the bottom of the seventh inning when it put two runners on with two outs, but Lauren Polinsky’s hard line drive was snagged by Hannah Jones to end the game.

The Riders (6-3) were doomed by their inability to get the key hit as evidence by leaving seven runners on base, including three in scoring position.

“We couldn’t get that one big run today. We were swinging at bad pitches, watching good ones go by. We couldn’t sacrifice when we needed to,” Riders head coach Skye Boris said. “We’re definitely going to work on the little things, making sure we get the little things done and not watching good pitches go by and swing at the good ones.”