Tippecanoe Valley’s Kaitlyn Ott hammers an RBI single to help the Vikings top Triton 6-5 Wednesday afternoon. (Photos by Mike Deak)

AKRON – As Abby Betten squeezed her glove for the 21st out created by the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings, the program clinched a win to build upon Wednesday evening. A 6-5 softball win against Class 1-A No. 10 Triton had the Vikings jumping for good reason.

Triton’s Taytum Hargrave lets a pitch out of the zone go by.

“This is a good win for them. There were a lot of little things I liked seeing today,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Daryl Shoemaker. “I think the girls realize now it’s going to take more than one bad inning to beat them. Tonight, coming back from three runs down to beat a quality team like that is huge for us.”

A resilient performance from Valley had the club rally from three runs down and break the tie for good in the fifth inning.

A two-run single by Katie Gunter tied the game at three, and a Triton miscue off the bat of Katie Prater put Valley up 4-3. Courtney Jennings would level Triton at four after an RBI knock in the fifth inning, but the Vikings answered again in the bottom half, when Kayla Scott scored on a wild pitch followed by an RBI single from Kaitlyn Ott.

A pair of fine defensive plays in the outfield by Valley in the sixth saved certain danger, but Triton would make it Maalox time in the seventh. Nicole Sechrist reached on a throwing error to open the top of the seventh, and was then knocked in by Hannah Woodard’s single. But a pair of lineouts and a soft grounder to third left the tying run on base.

“You have to tip your cap to Valley, they played a better game than us,” said Triton head coach Steve McBride. “I don’t want to take away anything from them. They outplayed us and deserved to win. They didn’t give us a lot of extra chances and we didn’t take advantage of a lot of the chances we did have.”

Triton pitcher Courtney Jennings

Gunter would get the win despite a shaky start. Pitching five innings, Gunter gave up 11 hits and had to wiggle out of jams in the first, third and fourth innings. Triton loaded the bases in the third with no outs, with Gunter allowing a Sechrist two-run single but nothing more. Triton again loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth, getting an RBI single from Kaci Pugh along the way. But a lineout and a slick double play from Scott at short on a sinking line drive got Tippy out of trouble again.

Jennings took the loss in the season opener for the Trojans, laboring through five innings that had her toss 120 pitches. Only one of the six runs allowed were earned, that coming on Ott’s single. Jennings walked two and fanned six.

Pugh, in her first varsity game for Triton, had three hits while Jennings, Sechrist and Taytum Hargrave all had a pair of hits. Prater, Betten and Scott all had two hits for Valley.

Triton (0-1) returns to action Thursday for a homer against Goshen. Tippecanoe Valley (2-1) gets back at it Thursday at home against Winamac.

“Sure, we’d love a day to work on some things, but these girls just need to get out and play,” McBride said. “We’ll be fine.”

Added Shoemaker, “We feel good. I’m excited to see how we stack up against some of the teams we have coming up. Our schedule gets no easier, and we have a good opportunity to get back some of those games we dropped last year.”

Katie Gunter waves off attention after Gunter was pelted with a line drive.