Photo by Mike Hughes Buckeye Local’s Karlie Lander throws a pitch against the Harrison Central Huskies on Saturday.

CADIZ — Buckeye Local headed to Cadiz on Saturday with its full complement of starters for the first time all season.

One 4-0 shutout later and the Panthers improved to 2-2 and provided first year head coach Katie Beeman with plenty of positives to reflect on in the early part of the season.

“We had some injuries and a couple of girls were in (Spain) on a school trip, but we finally had everyone here,” Beeman said. “I feel confident and hope we can build off of it.”

The Panthers banged our five runs on nine hits, with all five coming during a key fourth inning.

Buckeye previously put runners in scoring position–leaving eight stranded for the game–but this inning, a combination of timely hitting and taking advantage of a couple Harrison Central miscues proved to be the difference.

Not only that, but a critical stat for any coach is when they can look at the scoreboard and see that bright, glowing goose egg in the error department.

Yes, Buckeye played mistake-free softball Saturday, and it greatly affected the outcome.

“That was one of the first things I said to them, that we had no errors, and honestly, that was the difference. They had four and we had none and it helped us keep them off of home plate,” Beeman said.

A strong performance from freshman Karlie Lander certainly didn’t hurt.

Making just her second varsity start, Lander worked all corners of the plate in striking out 13 Huskies, including four Harrison batters getting caught looking at strike three.

Not bad for just her second varsity start.

She may have worked the upper portion of the strike zone a decent amount which, according to Beeman, wasn’t planned. But she mostly had command of her pitches and kept Harrison off balance and off the base path.

“She pitched extremely well,” Beeman said. “This is only her second game pitching on the varsity level and she had them struggling with the bats. I don’t think she was hitting all of her spots, but she does like to move it around.”

It took until the fourth inning for Buckeye to finally dent the board.

Kierra Eastham led off and reached on an error to the left side of the infield. Eastham reached second on an error, followed by Maddy Roset crushing a 2-1 pitch that bounced off the wall in center, scoring Eastham and allowing Roset to reach third with a stand-up triple.

Melissa Smith walked while Roset scored on a line drive single from Tatum Walker for the second run.

A fielder’s choice led to a force at third on the next play, but back to back singles from Sammy Ankrom and Lander scored the final two runs of the inning.

Harrison attempted to get something going early, when Kara Blackburn lined a single into center with one out in the first inning, stealing second two pitches later.

But Lander struck out both Isabel Yeager and Olivia Tonkovich to end the threat.

Harrison managed three additional base hits from Yeager, Tonkovich, and Kaily Banal in separate innings, but none of those resulted in the Huskies putting a runner in scoring position.

Buckeye hits the road for a meeting with Monroe Central today, while Harrison heads to Wintersville to face Indian Creek. The Redskins are coming off a tough 8-7 loss to Edison.