LYONS — Each softball team had been entrenched in a mini-funk, and it was clear that Valley or Lyons was going to escape it. The dramatic degree to which that would happen wasn’t quite expected.
Valley emphatically escaped its weeklong doldrums by traveling to Lyons and smashing the host Lions 14-0 in five innings Thursday in a Class 3A Patriot League game, getting tape-measure home runs from sisters Haley and Taylor Hutton.
“Last week was a wake-up call for us,” said Haley Hutton, who tripled on the second pitch of the game and added a solo homer in the fifth. “We went to practice knowing what we had to work on, worked on it, and now we’re much more confident.”
Two weeks ago, Valley was ranked No. 1 and Lyons No. 4. But each began league play with two losses in three games and slid this week to Nos. 5 and 7, respectively. After Valley’s 15-hit outburst, which included a 4-for-4 performance from Hope Asbury and a 3-for-4, four-RBIs outing from Ashley Ray, consider the Vikings (10-4) trending upward.
“Everybody needed to come through, including Haley and I, for each other,” said Taylor Hutton, who launched a towering three-run homer in the second inning. “This week sure is a lot better.”
Taylor Hutton also threw a complete-game shutout, striking out 10 while allowing Lyons (9-4) only two hits.
“It’s a matter of focus, because we haven’t been doing that very well lately,” Lyons first baseman Kelly Williams said. “We’ve got attitudes going on in the dugout that we don’t really need right now. If we focus, we can get back to where we were.”
Valley mashed its way to six first-inning runs, as five Vikings hits, an error and a dropped third strike put Lyons in an immediate hole. Taylor Hutton’s homer in the second made it 9-0, and that was that. Lyons pitcher Jaicy Sutak, one of the finest in the league, was relieved by Williams in the fifth with Valley up 12-0.
Sutak’s single and a Williams double accounted for the entire offensive production for Lyons while Valley seemingly never stopped circling the bases.
“We don’t like to score in the first inning and just stop,” Taylor Hutton said. “We like to keep scoring to keep our momentum going.”
Valley 630 32 — 14 15 1
Lyons 000 00 — 0 2 3
Valley (ab-r-h-rbi) – H. Hutton ss 4-2-2-1, Kawata cf 4-2-2-0, Asbury c 4-4-4-2, T. Hutton p 4-2-1-3, Ray 1b 4-2-3-4, Tapia 3b 4-1-1-0, Harrington rf 3-1-1-0, Kline dh 3-0-1-2, Hockmiller lf 3-0-0-0, Mockerman 2b 0-0-0-0. Totals 33-14-15-12.
Lyons – Sutak p-ss 3-0-1-0, Aumiller cf 2-0-0-0, King rf 1-0-0-0, Myers rf-cf 2-0-0-0, Subbert 3b 1-0-0-0, Theriault 3b 0-0-0-0, Williams 1b-p 2-0-1-0, Hickey c 1-0-0-0, Johnson ss-2b 2-0-0-0, Arling lf 1-0-0-0, Bashor 2b-1b 2-0-0-0. Totals 16-0-2-0.
E – H. Hutton, Aumiller, Hickey, Sutak. DP – Valley 1. LOB – Valley 4, Lyons 5. 2B – Ray 2, Williams. 3B – H. Hutton, Kawata, Asbury. HR – T. Hutton, H. Hutton.
Batteries – T. Hutton and Asbury; Sutak, Williams (5) and Hickey. W – T. Hutton (8-3). L – Sutak (6-3). T – 1:22.
