Photo by Andrew Grimm STRONG IN THE CIRCLE — Big Red pitcher Isabella Cadile delivers a strike against Oak Glen on Wednesday. Cadile fired her second complete game victory in as many days.

After beating Wheeling Park on opening day Tuesday, Big Red earned another impressive victory a day later, pulling away from defending West Virginia state champion Oak Glen for a 6-1 victory Wednesday evening at the Crimson Complex.

“It is a nice couple of wins to start the season,” first-year Big Red head coach April Minniefield said. “We have some things to clean up, but the girls are playing hard.

“It feels really good to be 2-0, I was a little nervous playing Oak Glen, they’re a very good team, but the girls came and did the work.”

Big Red (2-0) again got some big hits with runners on. And, not surprisingly, a big one of those again came from Akron signee Sadie Edwards.

Photo by Andrew Grimm ANOTHER BIG HIT — Big Red senior Sadie Edwards celebrates after hitting an RBI triple against Oak Glen.

After hitting a double and triple with two RBIs against Park, Edwards laced an RBI triple to center that evened the score and sparked Big Red’s offense in the bottom of the fourth.

After Steubenville had gone up 3-1 on an RBI single from Riley Zorne, two innings later senior Emily Tuttle doubled, Zorne knocked in with another RBI single and then Addison Meyer singled up the middle to plate two more runs, making it a 6-1 lead.

“We’re waking up late in the games, we need to wake up earlier in the games, but they’re doing a good of coming through with some big hits,” Minniefield said.

That lead proved to be more than enough for sophomore pitcher Isabella Cadile, who tossed her second complete game in as many days. She struck out five and walked two in holding the potent Oak Glen line up to just four hits, all singles.

“She did a good job, especially after coming back on no rest from having pitched yesterday,” Minniefield said. “I told her she was throwing too many pitches and she did a much better job of being efficient today.”

Photo by Andrew Grimm FROM THE OUTFIELD — Oak Glen outfielder Mikalyn Balch fires the ball in after tracking in down in centerfield.

The Golden Bears (1-2) had struck first with a one-out RBI from Brayley Lash in the third, but Cadile got the next two outs, including an inning-ending strikeout to keep the damage at one.

Cadile then worked around a leadoff single in the fourth, striking out two batters in the inning. A great throw from right fielder Kaliyah Chamberlain to Tuttle at third provided the final out.

Big Red’s infield turned a double play in the fifth, the Bears stranded another runner in the sixth and Cadile worked a 1-2-3 seventh to make the offense stand up.

“We had a good start, Steubenville is always going to test you defensively … we put some balls in play, we just weren’t able to get the runners across when we had opportunities,” Oak Glen head coach Sherrie Garner said. “We have a challenging schedule early on, it just kind of worked out that way. I told the girls this is a marathon, not s sprint. To get where we want to go we have to keep battling through these types of games.”

UP NEXT

Oak Glen: Heads on the road to Wheeling Park today to continue a stretch of six games in five days.

Big Red: Has another big test tonight, heading on the road for the first time to take on John Marshall.

Big Red 6, Oak Glen 1

OG 0-0-1 0-0-0 0 — 1 4 2

BR 0-0-0 3-0-3 x — 6 11 1

OAK GLEN (1-2): Holden (LP, 3 1/3IP, 3R, 2ER, 4H, 4K, 1BB), Robinson (2 2/3IP, 3R, 3ER, 7H, 1K, 0BB) and Heath. Lash RBI; Holden S; Hartung S; Watkins S; Lough S.

BIG RED (2-0): Cadile (WP, CG, 1R, 1ER, 4H, 5K, 2BB) and Smarrella. Meyer S, 2RBIs; Smith S; Edwards S, T, RBI; S. Zone S; R. Zorne 2S, 2RBIs; Cadile S; Tuttle D; Chamberlain 2S.