NILES — It’s been a rough go for the Warren G. Harding Raiders softball team.

Coming into Friday evening’s matchup with the Niles McKinley Red Dragons, they were winless and had just lost by 17 to the Lakeside Dragons the day before.

Harding coach Meaghan Coe talked about her team being more aggressive and looking to get hits. They got the message, erupting in a 21-0 victory highlighted by an 11-run second inning. Mikalyn Todd’s three-run home run was the biggest blow to the Red Dragons.

It took a 5-0 game out to 8-0 advantage, and then soon enough, it was 16-0 after two innings of play.

“She was great,” Coe said. “She was on top of it. Also our bats; we were a little bit more aggressive today. We talked about that on the bus. We need to be aggressive when we come out here. We don’t need to sit back and wait because I think sometimes we want to sit back and wait for a walk instead of being aggressive with the bat.”

Seven Raider batters finished with two or more hits. They were aided by 14 Niles errors as they worked the pitch count on Bella Rexroad in the first, second, and fourth innings.

Rexroad held her own at times throwing 118 pitches for the game.

“Bella is going to be a stud in four years,” Niles coach Robert Cutlip said. “When she is a senior she’s going to, I truly believe, she’s going to be one of the best pitchers in this area. She’s a true freshman. She’s got some growing.”

The Red Dragons were hurt a lot by their defense as two runs were unearned in the first. It started a trend that blew up in that second inning.

“We’re just young,” Cutlip said. “The tough part for this year is keeping them up, and wanting to still learn. Today’s a day that I truly believe that we should have been playing with this team. This is a team we should have played with.”

Harding has had those growing pains as well coming into the game winless and struggling at times to get their offense going.

Friday evening, Marissa Stear kept the Red Dragons off balance with nine strikeouts and limiting Niles to two hits and just four base runners.

“It’s good for girls to have that confidence underneath,” Coe said. “You know when you start to struggle a little bit and you see that light of confidence, and they were in it and ready to go. We told them to have some fun, go out and win.

“It’s nice to get that first win though. We’ve been struggling a little bit but it’s nice to get that first win under our belt, and hopefully we continue with the momentum and keep going.”

It’s an interesting dynamic as both teams are trying to figure out what they have after a lost season in 2020.

Even if spring sports would have happened, the Red Dragons only had six girls come out last year. Only two remain from that group.

“We have one senior and one junior,” Cutlip said. “The rest of them are freshmen. We’re a very young team and very inexperienced in the game. Granted they probably didn’t show it tonight, but they’re better than what they played tonight, because we’ve played better against some better teams. They just didn’t show up tonight at all.”