Softball: Kendall Lowery’s 3 RBIs, solid pitching help Ottawa top Dixon, 6-1.

OTTAWA – After opening the season with a loss Monday, the Ottawa softball team was looking to get things turned around in Wednesday afternoon’s game with Dixon.

Mission accomplished.

The Pirates recorded 14 hits on the day, scored at least one run in the second through sixth innings and used solid pitching efforts from Maura Condon and Peyton Bryson to even their record at 1-1 with a 6-1 triumph over the Duchesses, who were playing their first game of the season.

Ottawa senior Kendal Lowery had a single, double and three RBIs, while Piper Lewis, Bryson, Reese Purcell and Addie Miller all posted a pair of hits to back the pitching of Condon (Win, 4 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 8 K) and Bryson (3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K).

“Maura came out and threw the ball much better and hit her spots more than she did on Monday against Yorkville,” Ottawa coach Adam Lewis said. “It was good to see her kind of bounce back from a rough outing. Then Peyton came in and had another solid effort in relief for us. She does such a great job of changing speeds and really wearing out that outside corner.

“I think we hit more balls hard for outs than we did hits today, but that said, we did such a better job of putting the ball in play than we did on Monday. We were as a group just more relaxed and confident in the batter’s box.”

“It’s nice to get that first win under our belts.”

“We were all just so much more aggressive at the plate today. We weren’t thinking too much in the batter’s box and looking for pitches and putting the bat on them.”

—  Kendall Lowery, Ottawa senior shortstop

Ottawa grabbed the lead for good on Aubrey Sullivan’s sacrifice fly in the second inning. In the Pirates’ third, Miller and Hailey Larsen both singled and scored on Lowery’s bloop double into short center to make it 3-0.

“I feel like [on Monday] we just had way too many jitters and never really got over them,” Lowery said. “We have a pretty young team, and that’s not an excuse for how we played our first game, but I think everyone just came into today’s game much more ready to go, relaxed, and played like we can.

“We were all just so much more aggressive at the plate today. We weren’t thinking too much in the batter’s box and looking for pitches and putting the bat on them.”

The hosts made it 4-0 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Larsen, while Dixon scored its only run in the fifth. Kiley Gautner was hit by a pitch with one out, moved to second on a base hit by Bailey Tegeler and scored on a single to center by Allie Abell.

Ottawa closed out the scoring in the bottom of the fifth as Condon and Bobbi Snook lined consecutive singles before Lowery followed with a single to left that scored Condon.

Tegler finished with two of Dixon’s four hits, while also reaching on a walk and stealing a pair of bases. Abell took the loss in the circle, allowing four earned runs, while walking one and fanning five.

“Obviously not the outcome we wanted but we really played well defensively, and I thought Allie pitched a really good game for us,” Dixon coach Candi Rogers said. “Delaney [Bruce] made a couple of fantastic catches in left field; Bailey made a great throw home to get a runner and on that play Ava [Valk] made a great catch and tag. We just weren’t as aggressive at the plate than we need to be, let some strikes go by that we should have been swinging the bat at and that is something we’ve talked about a bunch all week long. We had some chances throughout the game with runners on, but just couldn’t get that next hit.

“For a first game, other than some struggles at the plate, I’m very pleased with how we played today. A lot of good things happened today for us.”

Ottawa is scheduled to travel to Geneva for a doubleheader Saturday, first game starting at 10 a.m., while Dixon is off until Tuesday when it hosts Sterling.