By Mike Drooger –

It was mostly cloudy and 41 degrees in Edgerton on April 20 when the first pitch was thrown. For the Rebels of Murray County Central, it had to feel much colder than that, but for the Flying Dutchmen of Edgerton/SW Christian, the weather was much more bearable thanks to a 16-1 Dutchmen victory.

It took Addison Fleischman a while to get settled in the pitcher’s circle. She threw 21 pitches in the first inning, which turned out to be okay because she kept the Rebels off the scoreboard. After a walk to begin the game, Fleisch-man coaxed a 4-3 putout and then she notched back-to-back strikeouts with the Rebel batters watching the third strike float over the plate.

Mackenzie “The Igniter” Snyder began the bottom of the first inning with a slap single. She stole second. She stole third. She scored on an error. It was an omen of things to come for E/SW as ten of their runs came without the benefit of an RBI hit. Wild pitches and errors plated most of E/SW’s runs. Brooklynn Moss did get an RBI, but it wasn’t due to a hit. Her RBI came thanks to a bases loaded walk. At the end of the first inning the Dutchmen enjoyed a 7-0 lead.

Fleischman had a much easier second inning, as she needed just nine pitches to get her team back in the dugout where they were eager to grab a bat and head to the plate.

Maren Nerem began the inning with a walk. Ana Veldkamp, running for Nerem, later scored on another wild pitch. Moss scorched a solid double up the middle and she, too, scored after a wild pitch to the backstop was uncorked.

Brenalyn Smit got on base via an MCC error and she came around to score thanks to a Makenzie Snyder RBI single. Snyder later scored due to a Rebel error and it was 11-0.

The Rebels got on the board in the third thanks to a homerun, which was the first run given up by Dutchmen pitching in 2021.

In the bottom of the third, Nerem decided hitting the ball over the fence looked like a fun thing to do. Her homer cleared the fence in right center and it was 12-1.

Fleischman got a nifty defensive play behind her in the fourth to help set the Rebels down 1-2-3. Hannah Pap raced from her position at second base to cover first base on a ground ball to Brooklynn Moss. Moss had gone far to her right off the first base bag, made the stop, and flipped the ball to Pap for the out.