Cheyenne Eads knew she had to carry a heavy load of work this season to make Shelbyville successful on the softball diamond. Just past the halfway point of the Golden Bears’ season, Eads has been stellar.

On Friday, the senior smashed two home runs to lead Shelbyville to a 5-4 victory over Triton Central. Eads followed that with a 15 strikeout performance Saturday in the Golden Bears’ 2-1 win in eight innings at East Central.

In 16 games, Eads (photo) is hitting a team-best .500 with seven doubles and five home runs. In the pitching circle, she is 11-4 with 133 strikeouts in 80.2 innings.

Eads was the starting pitcher Friday against Triton Central, a 2023 semistate qualifier that is struggling to find consistency in 2024 with its entire roster back. Shelbyville was originally scheduled to host Batesville Friday but that fell through and the Tigers jumped onto the Golden Bears’ schedule for a matchup of two programs that reached the semistate round of the state tournament in 2022 (Shelbyville) and 2023.

Eads struck out the side in the top of the first and Addie Stieneker walked in the bottom half of the inning and later scored on a wild pitch for an early 1-0 lead.

Eads made quick work of the Tigers (4-6) in the second inning then the Golden Bears extended the lead to 3-0 against Triton Central starting pitcher Lillian Fillippinie. Gracie Crafton doubled and scored on a Kali Laycock sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Stieneker delivered a run-scoring single that plated Aaliyah White, who walked two batters earlier.

Crafton took over in the circle and did not allow a Triton Central hit until the seventh inning. She did walk three over four innings and allowed a fourth-inning run that got the Tigers on the scoreboard.

Eads blasted a solo home run in the fourth and again in the seventh before the Tigers rallied and forced Eads back into the circle.

Fillippinie led off the seventh with a double. She scored on Madison Collins’ sacrifice fly. Two Shelbyville errors and a hit batter by Crafton brought leadoff hitter Jalynn Keith to the plate and she doubled to make it 5-4.

Eads stepped back in and struck out Jayda McKee to end the game.

Shelbyville 2, East Central 1

At St. Leon Saturday afternoon, the Golden Bears needed an extra inning to improve to 3-0 against potential Sectional 14 opponents this season.

Eads collected 15 strikeouts in eight innings while the Shelbyville offense struggled to get into gear against East Central left-hander Paige Hotze.

Shelbyville (11-5) took the lead in the fourth inning when Destiney Johnson singled, moved up on a pair of groundouts and scored on Hailey Maulden’s infield single.

The Trojans (6-5) countered in the fifth with a Lexi Hatmaker double. Kate Dudley drove her in with the second hit of the inning to tie the game once again.

In the eighth, Anna Shearer (photo) drove in Johnson from first base with a double in the gap and Eads added three more strikeouts around a fielding error to secure the win.

Shelbyville will attempt to go to 4-0 against Sectional 14 foes Monday at Whiteland (8-7).

Misty Weaver photos

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