It did not take Ellie Fox long to figure out the impact Alyssa Muhlbach would have this season on Yorkville’s softball team.

Or where the freshman would hit.

“As soon as I saw her lifting I was like ‘That’s our leadoff hitter.’ I just knew,” Fox said. “I saw her sprint and her swing and her athleticism. I knew she could hit.”

Muhlbach, a speedy little 5-foot-1 lefty, has indeed been a hit. She batted second for one game, moved up to leadoff, and hasn’t looked back.

Muhlbach’s leadoff single started a seventh-inning rally Friday, and Fox singled her in. The visiting Foxes tacked on three more runs to beat Oswego 8-4 in the Southwest Prairie Conference game.

Muhlbach, who had walked twice in three previous plate appearances, came to the plate to start the seventh after Oswego (7-7, 3-1) tied it 4-4 on Sophie Morland’s single with two outs in the sixth.

On the sixth pitch from Purdue commit Jaelynn Anthony, Muhlbach lined a single just over the leaping shortstop.

“I was just looking to get a base hit and to get on base and Kayla [Kersting] or Ellie would drive me in,” Muhlbach said. “My approach was to target everything down. I knew she was going to throw rises to me, I knew she would throw out so I was sitting on the plate and waiting to hit out.”

With one out Kersting singled, reaching base for the fourth time, and Callie Ferko’s bunt single loaded the bases for Fox. Fox had struck out against Anthony in the fifth, but on the 10th pitch she saw she singled to left to score Muhlbach, with Kersting awarded home on an obstruction call.

“I just knew I had to get the ball in play somehow. I could not strike out, I had to get that run in play somehow,” Fox said. “I knew she was throwing me curves every single pitch. I was prepared.”

Maddie Mendez followed with a two-run single. The Foxes (12-5, 4-0) had a number of long at-bats against Anthony, who came on in relief in the third inning.

“That’s what we need to do. We don’t need to win the game on one hit,” Yorkville coach Jory Regnier said. “We know Jaelynn is a good pitcher. Our approach was good quality at-bats. As a pitcher it gets frustrating.”

Yorkville’s win was its 10th in 11 games, and its freshman leadoff hitter is a big reason why.

Muhlbach had three inside-the-park homers, a triple and eight RBIs on Yorkville’s unbeaten spring break trip. She has the second-best batting average among Foxes’ starters and was tied with Ferko for the team lead in RBIs.

“First of all, she understands the game very well and is an extremely mature softball player,” Regnier said. “I also believe she is a dynamic hitter. She can do everything you want – she can hit hard, hit it in the gap, bunt for a hit, slap it, she can do anything. It’s just so hard to plan for that as a defense."

With Muhlbach moving into the leadoff spot, it’s allowed Regnier to slide Iowa commit Kersting to third with speedy Liv Lathen second.

“If we can get runners on in front of Kayla I’m not mad about it,” Regnier said. “You can’t not pitch to everybody. Speed at the bottom, we have a dynamic offense. We can do a lot, which we did today.”

The Foxes scored two runs in the first inning on a throwing error on a dropped third strike. Oswego came back with three in the bottom half, two on Brynn Broughton’s double.

Yorkville swung back ahead 4-3 in the third with Ferko’s bases-loaded walk and a Mendez single to score Kersting, a rally started by a Muhlbach walk.

The significance of the win wasn’t lost on Fox and Yorkville’s seniors, who lost to Oswego three times in each of the last two years.

“They knocked us out of the playoffs two years in a row,” Fox said. “Me, Kayla, everybody, we just wanted to beat them so bad.”

Defending state champion Oswego, like Yorkville, has picked it up after a tough start to the season. The Panthers had won seven of nine coming into Friday.

Adalynn Fugitt, one of three starters back from last year’s team, had three hits Friday and reached base four times.

“We’ve definitely been building momentum offensively,” Oswego coach Annie Scaramuzzi said. “We’re figuring it out and playing good ball. Our message at the beginning of the season was our record doesn’t matter, it’s how we’re playing at the end of the season. Having as many new faces as we do, we knew it would take a minute to get there, to figure it out. But we’re there.”