Elkhart broke a two-all tie with a pair of runs, then dropped a five spot in the sixth to run away from Fairfield, 10-2, Tuesday in the softball season opener.
Madison Jones had an RBI single, part of a two-hit day in her rookie debut, but five Fairfield errors accounted for five Elkhart runs on the blustery evening in greater Benton.
Bailey Harris-Rogers homered and drove in four to lead the Lions.
Another Lions squad from the Northern Indiana Conference came calling on Friday, and continued the big offense in a 12-1 Bremen win over Fairfield. Peyton Mason and Mickie Shively both homered and combined to drive in six to lead Bremen. Preslee Caouette doubled in Adelyn Holsopple with Fairfield’s only run of the contest.
Fairfield track concluded its indoor schedule with an appearance at the Hoosier State Relays State Finals this past weekend.
Fairfield had a combined nine entries in the Small School State meet, and more than half were top-10 finishers.
Pole vault was impressive, getting all three of its competitors on the podium led by Joya Holsopple’s 9-6 mark to place seventh, and both Jalyn Stofleth and Shelby Miller hitting 9-0 to each place eighth. Shot put had Nick Hofer send the pill 49-1.25 to finish ninth, with teammate Ethan Hochstetler throwing 45-1.25 to land 18th.
The girls 4x800 relay of Lorelei Shively, Elli Yoder, Lyla Dennis and Natalee Lambright were also ninth, improving 11 seconds on its best qualifying time with a posted 10:36.27, and Madelyn Culp improved by a tenth of a second in her 60-meter hurdles to finish tenth at 9.83.
Emma Walter was 11th in the 60-meter dash (8.15), the boys 4x200 relay of Blake Metzger, Marco Garcia, Caleb Silliman and Waylon Herschberger was 19th at 1:36.93 and the girls distance medley of Shively, Dennis, Lambright and Zoie Miller were 19th at 14:08.03.