With two outs,  two strikes and two runners on, the Hall-Dale senior wasn’t being picky.

“I knew there were two people on and I knew I had to do something productive,” the Hall-Dale third baseman said. “Actually, the pitch was high, and I don’t usually swing at those. I knew I had to protect, and I was kind of swinging at everything and trying to get a piece of it.”

Instead of getting out of a first-inning jam, Dirigo watched Rush double in two runs. It staked the Bulldogs to the early lead that held up in a 4-1 softball win at Marble Park.

Rush finished with three RBI while senior pitcher Olivia Maynard allowed just five hits and struck out seven. She walked none and never allowed Dirigo more than one hit in an inning.

“If we’d gotten our bats on the ball a little bit earlier and got some base runners on, it makes it a whole new ballgame,” Dirigo coach Sara Thurston said. “We weren’t able to do that early enough to make that big of a difference.”

Dirigo’s only run came on a seventh-inning solo homer by Ellen Wainwright, who also had a single. The Cougars also got a double and single from Emma Lueders. Megan Bradbury had the only other hit for Dirigo (7-4).

“I think we became a little too picky on our pitch choice with what we were swinging at,” Thurston said. “We were seeing good ones go by and watching them go by. That’s never a good outcome for you. It’s hard to get good quality hits when you’re choosing pitches you shouldn’t be choosing to swing at.”

Dirigo pitcher Katelyn Olsen gave the Cougars a fine effort. She allowed just five hits and struck out seven. Walks and errors proved to do the Cougars in. Olsen walked one in the first and three in the third, and Dirigo had costly errors in both innings that led to three unearned runs.

“I think they got on our pitching early,” said Thurston, whose team is ranked fourth in Western C. “Katelyn fought back through it and kept her composure and pitched a really great game after that. Those unearned runs kind of ended up hurting us a little bit.”

Hall-Dale (9-2)  got the first batter of the game on with a walk but Olsen got the next two batters with a strikeout and flyout. Maynard reached on an error, and that brought Rush to the plate.

“That was pretty exciting,” Rush said. “We always talk about getting the early lead. So that was important.”

Maynard had a lead to work with and kept the Dirigo bats quiet. Wainwright had a single in the second and Lueders doubled in the third. Bradbury singled in the fourth. That was the extent of Dirigo’s offense early. When Lueders singled in the sixth, the Bulldogs produced a double play on an Olsen bunt. Leftfielder Jill Whynot did a nice job covering third to get Lueders attempting to take an extra base. The Bulldogs were errorless in the field.

“We’ve been having pretty good defense this year,” said Maynard. “I knew if they get the bat on the ball I had my defense behind me. I have faith in them. It lets me be at ease on the mound.”

Hall-Dale, ranked second in Western C,  padded the lead in the third.  With one out, Olsen walked a pair. Rush hit a hard liner to second. Mariah Lafleur gathered up the ball and threw Rush out, but a run scored. Then an error on a Whynot grounder made it 4-0.

“The other people that got on before me, I knew I couldn’t leave them out there because they worked hard to get there,” Rush said.

Dirigo has scored just two runs in its last two games and couldn’t get any kind of rally going, other than Wainright’s homer over the left-center field fence. It was third straight win for Hall-Dale and sixth in the last seven games.

“I definitely wanted to get ahead early on,” Maynard said. “(Catcher) Emma (Begin) and I really mixed it up. We threw a lot of curves and kept them off balance.”

kmills@sunjournal.com