By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
On Friday the Bennington softball team rode into Brookville for a rivalry series with Ell-Saline and took both games in a clean sweep with wins of 12-6 and 3-2.
Game One: Bennington 12, Ell-Saline 6
The Lady Bulldogs would strike first in the opener taking a short-lived 1-0 lead in the top of the first before a two-run Bret Hecker home run put Ell-Saline on top in the bottom of the first.
The Lady Cards would extend that lead in the second inning, but Bennington quickly got both runs back in the third on a pair of RBI hits by Gracie Caswell and Rylee Benien.
Benien would go on to break the 3-3 deadlock in the fifth on an RBI double, her second extra base hit of the game, and came in to score another run on a passed ball.
Bennington almost ended the game on a sacrifice fly that would have triggered the mercy rule in the seventh, but their sixth run of the inning was not to be as Isabelle Porter hosed the runner at the plate on an F8-2 double play.
Ell-Saline rode that momentum into a do or die seventh inning, scoring three runs but running out of steam as the Lady Bulldogs took the game 12-6.
Game Two: Bennington 3, Ell-Saline 2
The nightcap was a much closer game, with both starting pitchers reprising their roles in the circle.
Neither team managed to get on the board until the third inning, where an RBI single by Kailea Nisbeth and a two-run shot from Brooklyn Clark put the Lady Bulldogs on top 3-0.
Bennington appeared to have added a run in the fifth but an appeal of third confirmed that the runner left early on a sacrifice fly, leaving the door cracked for Ell-Saline.
Starting pitcher Callee Bradley did all she could to will her team to a win, hitting an RBI double in the fifth to cut the lead to two, and another in the seventh to make it a one-run game.
Ell-Saline got the tying run to third and the go-ahead run to second but a looking strikeout would seal the sweep for Bennington.
Junior Haylee Blake collected two wins in the circle for Bennington, recording 16 strikeouts to just two walks in 14 innings of work.
With this sweep, the Lady Bulldogs improve to 17-1 while Ell-Saline falls to 3-9.
Bennington goes on the road to Canton Galva next Tuesday, while the Lady Cardinals travel to Hutch Trinity.