MADISON TOWNSHIP — Clear Fork coach Jeff Gottfried swung open the corral gates and the Colts ran wild.
Clear Fork stole 11 bases Friday afternoon and completed the home-and-home sweep of Madison with a 7-3 win in Ohio Cardinal Conference action at Madison.
The Colts improved to 9-2 overall and 4-2 in the conference. The Rams dipped to 4-3, 4-2.
Clear Fork lead-off hitter Taylor Kline, who set the state single-season record when she stole 72 bases last spring, swiped five Friday. Remarkably, that is two off her single-game record of seven accomplished against Marion Harding last May.
“She is a weapon. She can almost manufacture runs by herself,” Madison coach Tim Niswander said. “I thought we had her thrown out twice tonight and the ball hit her. What do you do then?”
Kline led off the game with a single to center and, two pitches later, was standing on third base after back-to-back steals. She scored on Erika Farst’s groundout to short to give the Colts a quick 1-0 lead.
“We do what we do,” Gottfried said. “Everybody in the area knows it and everybody in the state probably knows it, too.
“It’s a game where, even if you know it’s coming, you’ve got to be able to stop it. As long as we execute … we’ve got a lot of confidence that we can get it done.”
Clear Fork scored twice in the third and Kline was again the catalyst. She stroked an opposite field double with one out and immediately stole third. Farst followed with a ground ball to third that went as an infield single when Madison third baseman Chase Carper held onto the ball to prevent Kline from scoring from third. Farst alertly took off for second on the play and when the Rams tried to retire her at second, Kline scored from third.
“The second time Kline was up, she scored after we held a ball,” Niswander said. “I went and talked to my girls and said, ‘Kline is going to score. We have to get an out.’ You can’t put yourself in a situation to give up a bigger inning and that is what we did.”
Farst stole third and scored on Anna Myers’ run-scoring single, giving Clear Fork a 3-0 lead.
The Rams struck back in the home half of the third when lead-off hitter Liz Sutter singled, stole second and third and scored on Katie Clever’s two-out bad-hop single to make it 3-1.
Clear Fork got two more in the fourth thanks largely to a couple of Madison errors. Darian Gottfried singled to lead off the inning, moved to second on MacKenzie Golden’s groundout and took third on a passed ball. She would score on Micaela Fidler’s groundout to second. Taylor Cook then reached on a two-out error, stole second and scored on another Madison error for a 5-1 lead.
Madison clawed back into it in the fourth, chasing Clear Fork starter Morgan Arnette. Freshman Alexis Crider singled sharply to right field to start the inning and took second on a fielding error. Crider moved to third on sophomore Alexis Sneed’s single and Sneed advanced to second when the throw from center field went home. Crider scored on a wild pitch with Sneed taking third. Sneed would score on junior Alexis Arnold’s groundout to make it 5-3.
The Rams had scoring opportunities in the fifth and sixth against Clear Fork reliever Darian Gottfried but left three runners stranded, including two in scoring position.
“We had our chances,” Niswander said. “We played much better than we did Thursday night (a run rule-shortened 11-1 Clear Fork win), but you can’t afford to leave runners on base against a team like that.”
Madison starter Paige Whisler settled down in the middle innings, retiring Clear Fork on three pitches in the fifth and five pitches in the sixth. The Colts got to Whisler for two runs in the seventh and again it was Kline in the middle of things She led off the inning with a double, stole third and came home when the throw struck her and she slid into the bag and caromed down the left field line. Farst followed with a single, stole second and scored on Myers’ double.
Madison was again without the services of leading hitter Katie Mullins. The junior is with her family on vacation.
“She’s hitting .470 with two home runs and 10 RBIs in five game,” Niswander said. “Not having her is a little bit of an issue.”
Madison returns to action next week in an OCC home-and-home series with Orrville. Clear Fork will play six games next week, including what could be a pivotal series with backyard rival Lexington.
“It’s Lex week. It’s a big week,” Gottfried said. “Hopefully we’ll get some good weather.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
