Chloe Hoene started the inning by drawing a walk. Malea Helmink then belted a 2-2 pitch over the centerfield fence to increase the lead to 5-1.

But the THS girls weren’t finished. Mallory Bloemer lined a double down the leftfield line, and one out later, CJ Apke deposited another pitch over the centerfield wall to increase the margin to 7-1.

“Three homers in a game. You don’t see that very often,” Tipton noted. “I thought we showed more discipline at the plate today. We laid off the high pitches and hit the ball well.”

The Lady Shoes also scored a pair of runs in the third inning after stringing together three straight hits. Wall was the catalyst again, lining a lead-off double into the left-centerfield gap. She beat a throw to third after Hoene blooped a single to left, with Hoene taking second on that throw. Helmink then ripped a base hit into rightfield, driving home both runners.

Effingham got on the board in the bottom of the third. Alyssa Martin singled with one out, went to second on a passed ball and scored when Jerzi Bierman grounded a base hit between shortstop and third base for the Lady Hearts lone tally of the game.

EHS had baserunners in every inning but one, but stranded eight of them, including three in the sixth inning when the Lady Hearts loaded the bases with just one out. But Teutopolis pitcher Alyssa Tipton struck out the next two hitters.

“They had seven hits, but Alyssa didn’t let them capitalize on them,” Coach Tipton said. “She was able to keep them at bay when they got runners on. Her ball was moving today and she mixed up her pitches well.”

“Tipton didn’t throw us anything tonight, but she didn’t need to,” Trigg noted. “We were chasing just about everything. She did what she had to do. She kept us off-balance the whole game. I thought she threw very well.”

Tipton walked just two and struck out 11 in her seven-inning performance. Her counterpart, Saige Althoff, also struck out 11 batters, but she gave up 12 hits and three walks.

Sidney Donaldson and Bierman both had two hits for the Lady Hearts, who had won eight of their previous nine games.

“We’ve been playing real well,” Trigg said. “I think we were a little over-confident today and you can’t do that, no matter how good you think you are. T-Town always has a solid team. We need to refocus now.”

Wall had three hits for the Lady Shoes, while Helmink and Apke both had a pair. Helmink finished with four RBI.

“We’re a real young team,” Tipton noted. “We start two seniors and two juniors and everybody else is a freshman or sophomore. We’ve had our ups and downs this year, which you can expect when you’re so young. The biggest thing is to make corrections when mistakes are made.

“Overall, we’re moving in the right direction,” the THS coach added. “We just have to keep grinding and keep working hard.”

The Lady Hearts, who dipped to 11-6, will play at home again today (Tuesday) against Altamont.

The Lady Shoes, now 12-12, will also play today at home against Marshall.