MIDDLETOWN >> Renee Edwards struck out nine more batters and the Middletown High School senior also drove in three runs with a single and double on Tuesday as the Mustangs overwhelmed the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 12-2 in a five-inning North Central League I softball game at Middletown.
Middletown supported Edwards in every way possible against the Timberwolves, banging out 15 hits and committing no errors in the field.
“They did a really good job of staying back and letting the ball come to them and we just lit it up,” Middletown coach Barry Glosser said of the Mustangs’ day at the plate.
Tabi Johnston led the way, going 4-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. Aly Ferguson added three hits while Edwards and Flynn each went 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
Edwards entered play with 225 strikeouts, 24 shy of matching the single-season county record of 249 set in 2007 by Clear Lake’s Brittany Rumfelt. With her nine strikeouts against Fort Bragg she now has 234, moving her into second place on the all-time list behind Rumfelt. Another Clear Lake pitcher, Brittany Mills (2002), had been second with 232.
Fort Bragg took a brief 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Middletown (6-7 league, 11-10 overall) pushed ahead to stay with three runs in the bottom of the inning and kept adding to its lead from there with a run in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth and four more in the fifth, at which point the 10-rule ended the game.
Middletown has one more league game — a week from today in Cloverdale — and will then apply for an at-large berth in the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs. If the Mustangs are successful in reaching the playoffs, that will give Edwards at least one more chance to equal or break Rumfelt’s eight-year-old record assuming she doesn’t do that in the team’s league finale against Cloverdale (Edwards struck out 11 Eagles in a 3-1 loss to Cloverdale back on April 7 in Middletown).
Edwards walked only one Fort Bragg batter. She did a nifty bit of pitching in the top of the third with the Mustangs leading 4-1 at that time. The Timberwolves reached her for three straight singles to load the bases with no outs. Edwards got out of the jam with consecutive strikeouts and a liner to shortstop.
“We did a good job of fielding behind her and she mixed in some strikeouts when she needed them,” Glosser said.
