JB’s Sales and Services’ Kenzie Collard swings at a pitch during a game against Old Bats of Michigan Made Monday at the Boneyard in Lake Linden. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)

LAKE LINDEN — With Copper Country Women’s Fastpitch softball playoffs just around the corner, teams are looking for success at this point in the season. Old Bats of Michigan Made found a ton of it Monday night at the Boneyard in Lake Linden as they turned a 1-0 deficit into a 16-1 win over JB’s Sales and Service.

“We were running the bases,” said Old Bats player-coach Danielle Thoune. “We have a much more mature team than we’ve even had in the past. But, we have a couple young guns, we’re confident, and we’re having fun. It doesn’t matter what team we’re going up against.

“JB’s is historically a very good team. So, you can’t go in ever expecting anything. Regardless of who their pitcher is or isn’t, and if they’ve got a full team or not, they’re good players. So, we show up, we have to be prepared to take them out, whoever they are, and it happened today.”

By way of scheduling conflicts and quirks, the two teams had not actually played a game against each other yet this season.

“We haven’t faced them yet,” Thoune said. “We had to forfeit the last time we were against them, because we didn’t have enough girls. So, we had never seen them before, other than watching them play other teams.”

Monday, JB’s had just eight players, and turned to Kenzine Ekdahl in the pitcher’s circle. Still, Old Bats had to find ways to have success.

In fact, JB’s struck first. Old Bats starting pitcher Romi Mattson walked the first two batters she faced, Ekdahl and Morgan Vandiver. Then a defensive error cost Old Bats a run as Ekdahl scored. Abby Hampton walked two batters later, but a fly out ended the inning.

From there, Mattson settled in, striking out two in the second inning and one in the third as she walked just two more batters over the course of the game.

“We use Romi to the bone,” said Thoune with a laugh. “She has other commitments on Wednesdays, so on Mondays, we usually pull her for all seven innings and she shows up for us every one of those seven. We’ve had games where she’s been the sole contributor of all of our outs, and that’s super cool. We’ll let her do that every time. But, she’s awesome.

“She’s a very subdued, laid-back person. I love that she’s got Mel (Baker) in her corner, quite literally back there. She doesn’t seem to let much get her down. She resets. The one run we had against was on a walk and an error, and that was where we stopped it. The first runner of the game was in and done, and we didn’t let anything else through after that.”

Old Bats got that run back and then some in the bottom half of the inning. It started with a Baker lead off walk. She stole second. Two batters later, Alana Nolan singled to put runners on the corners. Nolan then stole second. Sarah Dowd walked to load the bases. Mattson helped her own cause with a double to center field, scoring Baker and Nolan. A passed ball scored Dowd, and another scored Mattson.

Leading 4-1 in the second, Old Bats kept their good fortunes going when Baker hit a one-out double to the left field fence. Tessa Cipriano doubled to left field, scoring Baker. Cipriano got to third before the play came to an end. Alana Nolan then singled to left field, scoring Cipriano. Dowd reached on a fielder’s choice which left all runners safe. Mattson walked, loading the bases, but a double play ended the threat.

Old Bats entered the third inning leading 6-1 and it did not take them long to add to it. Aubrey Zackal led off with a single. Two batters later, AnnaMae Nolan singled to the center field fence. She stole second to put both runners into scoring position. Baker singled to left field, which scored Zackal. Cipriano doubled to the center field fence to bring Nolan and Baker home.

Alana Nolan singled. Dowd followed with a three-run home run over the right field fence, pushing the lead to 12-1.

Mattson followed with a single to left field. Thoune walked. Two batters later, Karis VanDoloski singled to load the bases. AnnaMae Nolan singled to the center field fence, scoring Thoune and VanDoloski.

With two runs in the bottom of the fourth, Old Bats could close the game out. Cipriano got things started with a double to center field. Alana Nolan then singled to left field. After Nolan stole second base, putting both runners into scoring position, Dowd brought them both home with a single to the center field fence.

Old Bats of Michigan Made’s Tessa Cipriano watches a ball she hit during a game against JB’s Sales and Service Monday at the Boneyard in Lake Linden. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)