Lady Mikes, Barnyak show no rust in 15-0 win over California
Carmichaels hadn’t played a softball game in nine days and one might expect a little rust with such a long layoff.
The Lady Mikes, and most notably pitcher Bailey Barnyak, showed no signs of that when they took the field on Monday.
Barnyak fired a four-inning no-hitter and Carmichaels scored in every inning on its way to a 15-0 Section 2-A victory.
It was the Lady Mikes’ first game since a loss to Middleton of Wisconsin in Florida on March 29 and their first home game since a 3-1 win over Albert Gallatin on March 22.
“The spring training in Florida helped,” Carmichaels coach Dave Briggs said. “We actually got some good weather down there and were able to get some work in, some games in.
“Last week was pretty much the worst week I can remember up here weather-wise. It was just terrible. We were stuck indoors. We worked on our hitting a lot, but we were anxious to get back outside today and hopefully again for practice tomorrow.”
Barnyak struck out nine and allowed only three baserunners, one on an error and walks to losing pitcher Kera Urick and Kayla Saeli.
It was the fifth no-hitter of the sophomore’s young varsity career. She threw four as a freshman last season.
Barnyak also had a strong performance at the plate with two hits, four RBIs and three runs scored and also stole a base.
The Lady Mikes (1-0, 4-1) scored one run in the bottom of the first inning, five in the second, six in the third inning and invoked the mercy rule with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Carmichaels’ Carys McConnell had a double, scored two runs, drove in two runs and was walked twice. Kaitlyn Waggett finished with a double and single along with a stolen base and two runs. Ali Jacobs and Megan Voithofer both drove in two runs, and Sydney Miller scored three times.
“It was nice to score some runs and get a shorter game so as not to overwork Bailey,” Briggs said. “We’ll probably have to cram in a lot of make-up games because of all the rain outs so if we can save her arm a couple innings here or there that will help us in the long run.”
The Lady Trojans fall to 0-2 in the section and 0-4 overall.