Jones Cracks Homer, Pitches Complete Game to Lift Portage Over La Porte

PHS-softball-vs-LP-4-16-13-1Sophomore Kiley Jones proved to be a dual threat on Tuesday night, working a complete game as the winning pitcher and hitting the game-deciding home run to lift Portage to a 4-1 Duneland Athletic Conference victory over La Porte in varsity softball.

The Slicers struck first when they manufactured a run in the second on a single, a walk, a stolen base and a throwing error. After Portage tied the game at one, Jones came to the plate with two runners on base and cracked a home run that accounted for the difference in the game.

“I wasn’t really thinking much but hit the ball,” Jones said. “I knew we had runners on and we needed to score. I saw a pretty pitch and just whacked it.”

On the mound, Jones said she felt “a little off,” but she managed to work through it to the tune of allowing just one run on three hits in a complete game victory.

PHS-softball-vs-LP-4-16-13-2“I felt a little off tonight, it wasn’t my best night, but I just tried to get through that weird spell I was going through,” Jones said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to gas one right down the middle, just a fastball right down the gut. If the junk isn’t working, go straight to the fastball.”

Head coach Lisa Hayes, who was making her return to the dugout after giving birth to a baby boy on Easter Sunday and missing two weeks, was impressed with Jones’s outing at the mound and her stroke at the plate.

“I just saw a lot of control,” Hayes said. “She didn’t get down on herself or anything as far as getting down in the count. Obviously, her hitting has really come around. She just kept her composure the whole day and it was great.”

Jones’s long ball was her second of the season and of her career, the first coming last week against Chesterton.

Hayes was impressed with the way her team played, calling the game “a big improvement” over Saturday’s double header split with Lafayette Harrison.

“It’s just making sure that we don’t snowball when we make a couple of errors and we didn’t tonight, it was one here, one there, done,” she said.

PHS-softball-vs-LP-4-16-13-3Hayes could not entirely keep herself away from softball during her time off. She attended portions of the games against Chesterton and Crown Point.

“Anytime you’re in a program, you invest so much of your time and to just cut it completely away from your life would be really hard to do,” she said. “That’s why I was out there for two of the games. I just can’t stay away.”

Portage (7-3 overall, 2-2 DAC) went 5-3 under John Hall, who was subbing in Hayes’s absence.

“It was weird with her gone,” Jones said. “Even though she was only gone two weeks, we definitely felt her absence. We’re just really happy she’s back, she’s a great coach."

Click here for a full photo gallery from the game!!

 

Photos by Natalie Wirsing, PortageLife.com