Maddy Adams hadn’t pitched since Hobart’s loss on May 9 to Munster.
The senior right-hander’s first outing in two weeks was a successful one.
Adams helped the Brickies post a 5-3 win over Portage in Monday’s first round of the Merrillville Sectional. The Chattanooga recruit pitched the final four innings, allowing a homer in the seventh to Adrien Hall and four hits.
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She struck out five.
“I was a little jittery, nervous,” Adams said. “I felt slow at first. But once I got my groove and I knew I had my defense behind me, I felt like the same pitcher.”
With Adams rested, the Brickies (17-10) have been starting Jenna Uhles, including against the Indians (9-15). The sophomore allowed two unearned runs on five hits in three innings.
“We all jumped on her back and she did a great job,” Hobart coach James Wright said.
“This is the cleanest we’ve played lately. We’ve been making a lot of errors and mental mistakes on the bases. This is a good win for these girls and I’m happy for them. We get to keep fighting.”
The Brickies scored all five of their runs in the third inning, sending 11 to the plate and collecting seven hits. Amanda Sandilla had a two-run double and Abby Brownfield had two hits in the inning. Brownfield finished 3-for-3.
“If someone gets a hit, you have to feed off that,” Adams said. “You have to use big plays and big hits to get momentum.
“Before the game, I was telling the girls that my freshman and sophomore year, I got knocked out by Portage and I didn’t want to let it happen my senior year. We were all fired up. We all played really well together.”
Lexy Young had a two-run triple in the third for Portage, which had nine hits. Hobart had 11 hits.
“Our kids were hacking all day,” Portage coach Joylyn Ichiyama said. “We weren’t overwhelmed in the box. Our kids had quality at-bats.
“The difference between us and them, our pitchers didn’t scatter their hits, whereas they were able to do that. They came up with timely hits, and we didn’t.”
Hobart will play Merrillville in Tuesday’s first semifinal.
The Pirates (7-18) stunned Valparaiso 7-3 in Monday night’s first-round game. The Vikings (15-13) swept Merrillville in two Duneland Athletic Conference games during the regular season by a combined score of 21-10.
“It’s amazing,” Merrillville coach Kristina Sides said with tears in her eyes. “These girls have worked so hard. We have six seniors and they’ve been working for this for four years.
“I kept thinking, ‘This is a big dream, somebody pinch me.’ But they did it. They proved me wrong.”
Junior Jenny Villanueva, also the winning pitcher, had a three-run homer in a four-run first inning Monday after Valparaiso led 2-0. Alexis Ramos also hit a homer in the second as the sophomore shortstop went 3-for-4. Kristin McGee also homered for the Pirates in the sixth.
“I’m just so happy,” said Villanueva, jumping up and down. “We’ve had this in us all year and it all came out in this game. This is amazing, I’m so excited. I wish we could play the next game right now.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff