The Collinsville High School softball team collected 17 hits and 11 runs Thursday in a win over Mascoutah to kick off their season.

Caitlyn Brombolich during practice / Photo by Roger Starkey

Caitlyn Brombolich pitched a complete game, allowing four hits and three walks, while striking out eight. The only run scored against Brombolich was unearned.  Jessica Ledford, Sarah Scrum and Kassidy Smith collected three hits each, and Smith belted a long home run in the 11-1 victory.

Behind one-hit pitching from Brombolich, Collinsville took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning. Following consecutive errors, the Indians were able to push across their only run of the game.

The Kahoks answered the unearned run with six earned runs of their own in the top of the sixth, highlighted by a Smith 2-run home run. The four bagger was hit with authority, Head Coach Cindy Kolda said.

“It wasn’t just a little bloop over the fence, it carried quite a while,” Kolda said.

When Smith wasn’t knocking the ball around the ballpark, the catcher was calling a great game for Brombolich, Kolda said.

“She went through everything with the pitching coach and knew the batters’ tendencies,” Kolda said. “They (Brombolich and Smith) had an approach to every batter before the batter got up, and knowing that helped a lot.”

Offensively, the Kahoks pushed across a single run in the 1st, 3rd and 5th innings, before putting six on the board in the sixth and adding their final two tallies in the 7th. Five players registered a multi-hit game (Samantha Buettner and Alex Holten collected two hits each).

Despite the strong pitching performance, Kolda is not yet ready to anoint Bromblich her number one starter. “Today she threw great. She hit her spots,” Kolda said. “We’re going to put the other two girls out there and see what happens.

The Kahoks return to action Saturday for an 11 a.m. matchup at Lebanon.