Despite the windy and cold conditions, the bats for Princeton and host Ottawa were hot in both team’s season opener on Friday afternoon at King Field.

The Tigresses and Pirates combined for 16 runs and 21 hits, including seven for extra bases, with the visitors using a six-run second inning to take the lead, then hanging on for an eventual 9-7 victory.

“Ottawa has a great program and coming from La Salle-Peru I knew they would be fundamentally sound,” Princeton coach Jessica Strauch said. “I felt like today with the conditions the way they were it was going to come down who made the least mistakes.

“These girls really showed me, even being the first game, that they know how to win. We were able to put a few hits around some walks in the second to get the lead, and then when Ottawa came back to cut it to one run, really kept our composure and buckled down.”

Ottawa took the lead with an RBI double by Aubrey Sullivan in the first, but Princeton used bases loaded walks by Piper Hansen and Addi Parry, an RBI groundout by Avah Oertel, a run-scoring single by Sylvie Rutledge and finally a two-run base hit by Izzy Gibson to lead 6-1.

“We have a few freshmen in the lineup this year and our schedule is front loaded with some of the better teams in the state, so this was a learning experience,” Ottawa coach Adam Lewis said. “I know we will have some growing pains and the second inning we had some of those. After the inning we talked about how this is how you learn to compete at the varsity level. You can roll over because it’s cold and were down a few runs or you can compete.

“I thought the girls responded well. After those first couple of innings our at-bats started to get better, we played more relaxed defensively and we were able to claw our way back into it. We just put ourselves in a little too big of hole to completely crawl out of. We had a lot of positives, so despite the outcome, I’m pretty pleased with how we played overall.”

The Pirates got a run back in their half of the second on an RBI double by Resse Purcell.

Makayla Hecht’s RBI hit and a passed ball in the fourth made it 8-2 Princeton.

In the Ottawa fifth, Piper Lewis smacked a three-run home run to centerfield before Purcell and Joslyn Rose added RBI infield singles to cut the deficit to 8-7.

But from there, Princeton starting and winning pitcher Reese Reviglio (7 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K) retired six of the final eight batters she faced while Pary drove in another run.

“Reese really dug down deep for us,” Strauch said. “The last two innings she had to go through the top and middle of Ottawa’s lineup and she just did a great job of making great pitches when she needed to. She was mentally tough and just pitched a great game for us.”

Oertel finished with three doubles, all going the other way to right field, while Gibson, Kiyrra Morris and Rutledge each had two hits.

“Avah is good at just hitting the ball where it’s pitched and today she did that four times and every single one was hit hard,” Strauch said.

Sullivan led Ottawa with three hits, while Lewis and Purcell each posted two hits.

Pirates junior ace Addie Russell (1+ IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K), Sophie Taylor (Loss, ⅔ IP, 2 H, 4 ER. 4 BB, 1 K) and freshman Kennedy Kane (5 ⅓ IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K) all saw time in the circle.

“Addie was only going to go two innings regardless, but after pitching the first and sitting, her ankle (injured during travel ball) tightened up,’ Adam Lewis said. ”That put Sophie in a tough situation, especially for a freshman in her first varsity game. Kennedy came in, kept us in the game and pitched really well."