TELSTAR — When Madison softball coach Chris LeBlanc made his suggestion for a play in the crucial fourth inning Monday, freshman Whitney Bess greeted his idea with a whole lot of skepticism and a little bit of fear.

“There were two outs and Coach called time out,” Bess said. “I knew something was going to go on. He wanted to try a suicide squeeze, but I wasn’t very confident because we haven’t worked on that much. So he just said to hit the ball.”

It proved to be a good alternate choice for the Bulldogs. Bess drilled an RBI triple and then scored on an error to give Madison the lead. That advantage held up in a 2-1 victory over Telstar.

“That was big,” Bess said. “I’m a freshman and I haven’t have much experience, but that was just really good for our team.”

Every day now seems to have its own catchy moniker, and this one was, “Bounce Back Monday” for both Madison and Telstar. Both teams were coming off their first losses of the season with poor performances Friday. Each displayed better effort Monday.

“I told the girls that this was a bounce-back game,” Telstar coach Jim Lunney said. “It didn’t matter if we won, but we had to play better. We had to come out and show that we can play with this team, and we did.”

After eight errors in an 11-2 loss at Hall-Dale, the Rebels looked much sharper in the field. Katie Merrill had some nice catches in right field while Tehya Johnson was sharp at short. Haley Peterson made a nice running catch in center while pitcher Olivia York pitched well, scattering five hits while walking none.

“My pitcher threw very well and my defense overall did very well,” said Lunney, whose team is ranked fourth in Western C. “I told the kids that I was very pleased. I was proud with how we played. We’ve got to swing the bats better, but it was night and day from Friday. That’s a good team. Our team lost, but I feel so much better.”

Though Telstar took the early lead, the Rebels couldn’t produce much offense after that. Madison pitcher Madeline Wood held the Rebels to just four hits while striking out 11. She finished the game strong, striking out the last five and six of the last eight.

“At the beginning, I was a little rusty,” Wood said. “As I got going, I kind of got my groove.”

Kayla Bess led Madison (7-1) with two hits while Wood, Erin Whalen and Whitney Bess also had hits.  Becca Howard had a pair of hits for the Rebels (6-2) while Ashley Savage and Merrill also had hits.

Telstar took the early lead in the first when Savage led off with a triple. She scored on a wild pitch. The Rebels had two more runners on when Sadie Ellsworth and Howard each walked. Wood then got a strike out, a pop up and a groundout to second to end the inning.

“We squandered a huge opportunity in the first inning,” Lunney said. “We had one out and my best hitter up. She took a called third strike. Then the next girl didn’t get the bunt down. In a close game, those hurt.”

Telstar’s offense didn’t muster much the rest of the way. Merrill had a two-out single in the second. Howard singled with one out in the third but a nice play at second by Ashley Emery robbed Johnson of a hit. Howard singled again to lead off the sixth, but Wood got a flyout to center and back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.

“We made a lot of errors against Lisbon, which we haven’t been making,” Wood said of Friday’s loss. “Nobody had really been hitting off us. So that was a good opportunity to wake us up for the next game.”

Madison, the top-ranked team in Western C,  got a Kayla Bess double in the first, but she was stranded. The Bulldogs got runners on with an error and a single in the third respectively, but York shut down the Bulldogs.

In the fourth, Whalen led off with a single and was sacrificed over to third. With two outs, Whitney Bess came to the plate.

“I’ve been hitting pretty well, but I had been in a little slump lately,” she said.

She drilled a triple to left-center for the tying run. When Telstar relayed the ball back to the infield, the Rebels tried to get Bess at third but overthrew, allowing her to continue home for the lead run.

“I should have told the girls to run it in,” Lunney said. “I knew the girl was at third base. I figured she might round.”

Telstar had just one hit the rest of the way. With the lead, Madison finished strong and Wood was tough to hit against, striking out nine of the next 13 batters.

“You definitely get confidence pitching when you have a lead, and you have something to work for,” Wood said.

kmills@sunjournal.com

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