Warren celebrates at home plate after Jayda Murray clubbed a home run against Marietta Thursday in Vincent. Warren won, 17-7. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

VINCENT — It wasn’t the greatest of starts to a softball game for the Warren Warriors Thursday evening as they played host to the arch-rival Marietta Tigers, but the rest of the game was rather spectacular.

After spotting the Tigers four runs in the first inning, Warren answered with seven runs of their own in the bottom of the first and went on to down the Tigers 17-7 in five innings.

The Warriors pounded out 20 base hits in the game, including 11 extra-base hits compared to zero for the Tigers.

Remarkably, all nine hitters in the Warrior lineup collected at least one extra-base hit.

“We are confident in our lineup 1 through 9 and our girls are recognizing they don’t have to do big things, they just have to do their jobs,” said Warren head coach Katie Wells. “That’s kind of been our message that I’ll do my job and you do yours and together we will make some big stuff happen.”

Marietta’s Keely Hanson jumps out of the way as Warren catcher Jayda Murray receives a pitch during a softball game Thursday in Vincent. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The Warriors struggled a bit defensively in the opening inning and the Tigers took full advantage as they sent eight batters to the plate to take the 4-0 lead.

After lead-off batter Samantha Mayo singled, Abby Miller and Chloe Harris both reached on Warrior fielding errors.

Tiger starting pitcher Emmy Ward made the Warriors pay for their miscues by singling in a pair of runners. Later in the inning, Kara Schaad brought in another run with a base hit.

Ward scored the final run of the inning on a wild pitch.

It would take the Warriors all of four batters to pull even with the Tigers in the bottom of the first.

Hailey Metz got things going for the Warriors off of Ward by singling and moved to third on a double by Ana Shutts.

Emma Lang plated the first two Warrior runners with a two-base hit to deep left field before catcher Jayda Murray tied things up with a two-run homer over the left-field fence.

Murray’s bomb was her third of the season and was an absolute bullet that was barely high enough to clear the left field fence.

“We were a little slow getting started and we like to be better than that but we were able to answer,” said Wells. “I don’t think this team has ever been shaken and they didn’t let that happen tonight.”

DeLaney Gates followed with yet another Warrior double and came around to score the go-ahead run on a single by Lila Smith.

That would spell the end of the night in the circle for Ward, who gave way to Harris on the mound.

Harris retired the first batter she faced before surrendering a triple to Danica Gates to bring home the sixth run of the inning.

A sacrifice bunt by Braylynn Bonnette capped a huge first inning for the home team.

Marietta went right back to work off of Warren starting pitcher Gracie Adams in the second inning as they quickly loaded the bases on base-hits by Kyleigh Constable and Mayo and a base on balls to Miller.

Harris singled to score a run but that would be all the damage the Tigers would do as Adams fanned the final two batters to end the inning.

Warren scored four more times in the second inning with Murray collecting an RBI single and Smith and Marina Johnson picking up RBI doubles.

Once again, the Tigers threatened in the top of the third but they had to settle for just one more run while stranding the bases loaded for the second consecutive inning.

“We hit the ball good at times but it just seemed to be right at them,” said Marietta head coach Jon Pollard. “A couple of times we had the bases loaded and couldn’t get them in and that hurt us a lot.”

The Warriors would add two more runs in the bottom of the third on a two-run single by DeLaney Gates to increase their lead to 13-6.

Adams shook off the slow start and gave her team five strong innings in the circle.

“It seemed like a tighter strike zone than we would like but she (Adams) figured out how to paint the corners,” said Wells of Adams, who walked four and fanned five to pick up the win. “Once she found her groove she was locked in.”

The Warriors added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI triple by Bonnette and a run-scoring double by Metz.

Marietta got a solo run back in the top of the fifth on a Miller RBI hit, but the Warriors brought the game to an early ending by scoring twice more in the bottom of the fifth.

Murray doubled for her fourth hit of the game and DeLaney Gates singled before Smith’s infield grounder plated the first run of the inning.

The Tigers elected to load the bases by walking a pair of Warrior batters trying to prevent the lead from increasing to 10, but Bonnette beat out a bunt single which allowed Gates to score the 17th and final Warrior run of the game.

Pollard had to tip his hat to the Warriors’ ability to hit the baseball and will hope for much better results when the two do battle once again in Marietta on April 21.

“You have to really give credit to Warren because they are a good team and they hit the cover off the ball and played good defense,” said Pollard. “We will get another shot at them here in a couple of weeks and hopefully we can even things up.”

Warren improves to 9-6 with the win and will next play at Fort Frye on Monday while the Tigers (4-6) will host Williamstown on Saturday.

at Warren High School

WP: Gracie Adams 5IP, 7H, 4BB, 5SO

LP: Emmy Ward: 6H

Chloe Harris 1.2IP, 5H, 1BB, 1SO

Abby Miller: 2.2 IP, 9H, 2BB.

Leading hitters

Marietta (4-6): Samantha Mayo 2-3, R, Kyleigh Constable 2-2, 2R, RBI, Abby Miller 1-3, R, RBI, Chloe Harris 1-3, R, RBI, Emmy Ward 1-2, R, RBI, Kara Schaad 1-3, RBI.

Warren (9-6): Jayda Murray 4-4, 3RBI, 2B, HR, DeLaney Gates 3-4, 3R, 2RBI, 2B, Danica Gates 3-3, 2R, 2RBI, 2B, 3B, Braylynn Bonnette 3-3, 2R, 3RBI, 3B, Hailey Metz 2-4, R, RBI, 2B, Lila Smith 2-4, 2R, 3RBI, 2B, Ana Shutts 1-4, 2R, 2B, Emma Lang 1-3, 2R, 2RBI, 2B, Marina Johnson 1-3, R, RBI 2B.

Next games: Saturday, Williamstown at Marietta, Monday, Warren at Fort Frye.