Apr. 12—JAMESTOWN — Sophia Bond got mobbed on Saturday.
With one out on the board, Bond, a junior for the Jamestown High School softball team, let loose and delivered a three run homer to end game No. 1 of the Blue Jays' doubleheader against Mandan.
"You know, I wasn't really thinking much and I think that is why it went over," Bond said with a laugh."I was so surprised. I turned around at second and looked at (Head coach Mike) Soulis and was like, 'did it go over?' and he was like 'yes!'. It was surreal."
With the help of Bond's first-career homer, the Blue Jays improved their conference record to 2-2, defeating Mandan 12-2, 11-6. Soulis and his crew will be back at Trapper Field on Tuesday hosting Turtle Mountain. First pitch is scheduled to be delivered at 4:30 p.m.
"She's excited," Soulis said of Bond. "That's her first home run. She's worked hard in the offseason with her swing and her confidence. It's exciting to see those. She's well-deserving of it. I am excited for her."
Bond has been a part of the Blue Jay varsity softball program since her freshman year. In her first two years, she was playing alongside seasoned athletes like former NDHSAA All-Staters Katie Falk and Makenna Nold.
This season, Bond is one of seven upperclassmen on the Blue Jays' roster.
"We're all so young and we have to figure out a way to step up and lead the team," Bond said. "We have been learning how to be leaders.
"We haven't really played with each other a lot but our team chemistry is coming together which is good," she said. "I am feeling good about the season.'"
Jamestown is currently 4-2 overall. The team picked up wins against Hillsboro/Central Valley and West Fargo Sheyenne last week then lost 2-1, 12-11 to Minot on April 10.
"We had a good talk after Thursday's performance," Soulis said. "We didn't play the way we wanted to play and let a couple slip away as a team. You have to have a short memory on that kind stuff. We were hoping we could come out and get going right away today."
It was not "right away" but at least the Jays got going.
Down 1-0 in the third, designated hitter, Avery Graves hit into a fielders choice, allowing leadoff hitter Brooke Jackson to get home and tie the ball game at one run apiece. Jamestown's defense kept Mandan scoreless in the fourth — a feat the Braves were not able to replicate.
Jordan Mikkelson's single drove in Violet Bohl and Brooke Jackson to give the Jays a 3-1 lead over the visitors. The inning ended before any more runs could score.
Mandan scored once in the fifth but two straight pop-ups to Brooke Jackson at second base allowed the Jays to escape the inning with a one run lead.
That lead soon grew to two.
"We lacked intensity a little bit but once we got the bats going we got more hyped up and came back," Bohl said. "We realized that we could hit off of Mandan. Rilie (Wolf) got us going with her line drive and that really motivated us to keep going."
Wolf, a freshman, drove in Bond on a single to get things moving in the fifth. Jamestown went on to score nine of its 12 runs in the fifth inning. The Blue Jays collected seven total hits while Mandan tallied five.
"Somebody has got to be the person who gets the play in the outfield or gets a hit," Soulis said of how momentum is built. "Rilie Wolf's line drive kind of sparked us today. We got a couple of runs off that one and the confidence kind of came through again.
"We didn't see anything different from the pitches really, we just had better approaches at the plate and were a little more focused," ...
