Photo by Kim North Barnesville’s Payton Dudzik (0) is all smiles rounding third base after receiving congratulations from third base coach Kelley Hanlon Wednesday night in Sardis. Dudzik homered twice, doubled, knocked in four runs and scored three others in a 10-0 victory.

SARDIS — Veteran River softball coach Dave Wright was on the verge of reaching a milestone Wednesday night. He entered the game with 299 career victories.

Visiting Barnesville was cast in the role of spoiler, starring Payton Dudzik, Ella Betts and Abigail Johnson.

Dudzik drove in four runs with two home runs and a double while Betts and Johnson teamed on a 3-hitter inside the circle with 11 strikeouts as the Shamrocks (2-0) rolled to a 10-0 blanking of the Pilots (1-1) on John Hess Memorial Field.

“It just wasn’t meant to be tonight,” Wright said of attaining the milestone. “There will be other nights.”

ONE PLAYER WRECKING CREW

Dudzik was on base four times and scored three runs. She reached on an error in the first before belting home runs in consecutive at-bats in the third and fourth frames. Her towering fly ball in the sixth resulted in a wind-blown RBI double.

The two roundtrippers – the first to right-center and the second to left – gave her three in two games.

“Payton is really hitting the ball well early on,” Hanlon noted. “I hope she keeps it up.”

Dudzik’s one-out solo shot in the third sparked a second three-run uprising as the lead grew to 6-0. She made it 8-0 an inning later with a drive to left.

“Spending a lot of time in the gym hitting in the batting cages has helped,” Dudzik said when asked about her surge of power. “We’ve been doing constant drills to help us get better power with our legs by sitting back and waiting. It’s working.”

EXTRA BASE

DELIGHT

Barnesville cranked out 10 base hits, of which six went for extra bases. In addition to the three by Dudzik, Smolira doubled twice and Abigail Johnson also doubled.

SHARP IN

THE CIRCLE

Betts, just a sophomore, struck out seven in five innings while walking two. He surrendered a mere single through the left side of the infield to Kaylee Hagan leading off the fourth. Johnson earned the save with three innings of two-hit relief. She fanned four and didn’t issue a free pass.

“I was very pleased with both of our pitchers,” Barnesville head coach Kelley Hanlon said. “They both did a good job of throwing strikes.”

The duo kept the Pilots in check.

“Lack of hitting mostly,” Wright said of the loss. “That’s a really good team right there. They hit the ball, and if they hit Ava (Wohnhas) like that, they can hit anybody. We faced a strong team which I knew was going to be. They’ve been good for the last 2-3 years and they have a lot of seniors.”

AN EYE-OPENER FOR RIVER

“I told the girls that we need to learn from this game. You saw how a veteran team plays,” Wright explained of his post-game message to his team. “I have seven freshmen and most of them are playing. Five of them have never played before.

“We’ve got a ways to go, but they are learning,” he added. “The fun thing is, that you can mold them now into being good players because of their youth. My three upperclassmen have taken the young one’s under their wings.

“I told the girls that this team (Barnesville) is going to beat a lot of teams like they did us, so don’t get down on yourselves.”

UP NEXT

Barnesville travels to Connorville Thursday to meet Buckeye Local before heading to Beverly on Saturday for a doubleheader with Fort Frye.

River is idle until Monday when it heads north on Ohio 7 to Shadyside.