JOLIET – The Joliet West softball team probably wasn’t expecting to find itself down early against Joliet Central, yet that was the predicament the Tigers found themselves in Tuesday afternoon through half an inning of play.

They weren’t in that position long.

After falling behind by a pair of runs in the top of the first, West scored four in the bottom half of the inning to pull ahead. The host Tigers added four more in the second and eight in the third as the offense was absolutely unstoppable. The pitching and defense was shutdown after the opening inning, too, as West picked up a 16-2 victory in five innings.

It didn’t start out that way. West (6-5) had to have been stunned after allowing a two-out RBI double to Joselyn Davenport that scored Natalie Reyes. Haydn Voss scored on a wild pitch the next at-bat, and just like that, the Steelmen were up 2-0 and looking at pulling off a major upset.

That was all the motivation West needed to kick it up a notch.

“I think it really fired us up after they scored two runs,” West coach Heather Suca said. “We’ve been talking about needing to come out ready to go from the get-go.”

On offense, they sure were.

Avery Houlihan got the party started with a steal of home in the bottom of the first. Shelby Fraser then scored on a wild pitch before Ella Featherston’s sacrifice fly scored Hope Hughes to put West ahead. Caitlynn Baranak’s RBI single to score Jessica Cole gave West a 4-2 edge at the end of the inning.

“I knew we had to get the momentum going,” Houlihan said. “We had high expectations, so we just had to get the bats rolling early. We knew one hit could keep the game rolling and we made sure everybody kept hitting. That worked out in our favor, thankfully.”

Boy did it ever. In the second inning, Cole drove in Brooke Schwall on a two-out single before Madison Jadron homered to with Cole and Featherston aboard to make the lead 8-2 in the blink of an eye.

West extinguished any hope of a comeback in the third. Houlihan started things with a leadoff home run before Fraser scored on a wild pitch. Schwall then slammed a solo shot to make it 11-2.

Featherston and Cole later scored on a pair of fielding errors. An RBI single by Alaina Grohar scored Jadron, and Grohar scored on an RBI single by Houlihan the next at-bat. Houlihan scored on a passed ball the same inning to make it 16-2.

Credit the Steelmen (2-6) for refusing to fold. West needed one run in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 15-run margin and end the game before the fifth. Joliet Central refused to surrender a run and carried the game into the fifth inning before West closed out the game.

“We just have to keep improving,” Central coach Jon Rashid said. “We need to stay focused every single pitch. We’re still working on that and remembering what happened the last at-bat. We want to know what our approach is going to be depending on the count. ... We’re still improving on defense, we just have to do more offensively if we’re going to stay in these games.”

It was an outstanding performance from Jadron, who went 2 for 4 with four RBIs and the home run while striking out seven and only allowing two hits. Cole (2 for 3, three runs), Featherston (2 for 2, two runs), Fraser (2 for 3, two runs), and Houlihan (2 for 4, two RBIs, HR) were outstanding as well.

Davenport’s RBI double was the big hit of the day for the Steelmen.

Central’s next game is at home against Plainfield East on Thursday, and West hosts Plainfield South the same day.