The talent gap was widely apparent when the Hug softball team traveled to face two-time defending state champion Spanish Springs Thursday afternoon. The host Cougars scored early and often en route to a 22-0 romp over their league foes.

After Hug went down in order in the top of the first, Spanish Springs posted 14 runs in the bottom of the inning. The Cougars rapped out 10 hits and took advantage of a hit batter, a walk and two Hawks errors in the offensive explosion.

Nine of the Cougars’ 10 first-frame hits were singles. Senior Courtney Darby ripped the lone extra-base hit of the outburst, an RBI double. Ashley Decker, Karlyn Jones and Kaytlin Ripa all knocked out a pair of hits in the rally. Karley Hopkins, Karly Hall and Andrea Bailey produced first-inning singles as well.

Spanish Springs tacked on a run in the second inning for a 15-0 lead. Neither team scored in the third, but the Cougar bats woke up again in the fourth. The SSHS crew pushed across seven more scores in the fourth.

In all, Spanish Springs lit up Hug pitching for 27 hits on the day. The Cougars improved to 7-2 overall and 3-1 in conference clashes.

“You have to play against the opponent that is put in front of you,” Spanish Springs coach Jeff Davidson said of playing an inexperienced, outmatched Hug team. “I just told the kids in the postgame huddle that I was impressed with their energy the whole game. We made adjustments at the plate. We tried to work on hitting the ball down and hard and we did a good job of that.”

Jones was stellar in the circle Thursday. A second-inning walk was the lone blemish that kept her from a perfect game in the mercy-rule affair, shortened to five innings. The junior right-hander, who has pitched every inning in the Cougars last four games due to a short-handed rotation, struck out 10 against the one walk. Hug did not even get a baserunner to second in the lopsided contest.

“I felt pretty good. I’ve had to pitch a lot of games (in a row) before. I keep in shape and I felt strong,” Jones said. “I wasn’t throwing as hard as usual, but I was spinning the ball real well.”

Davidson had higher praise for his Cougar hurler.

“Karlyn threw well. She was locating the ball well,” the Spanish Springs skipper said. “She is getting stronger as the year is going on. She did a fine job and mixed her pitches up well.”

The two teams meet again in a doubleheader at Hug Saturday morning that starts at 10 a.m. Spanish Springs will still be without senior pitcher Ashley Collier, who is expected to be sidelined for another week or two. Davidson said he plans to try and get a couple other Cougar pitchers some work and not overtax Jones’ right arm. He added that he likes the way his team is coming along in the early season.

“Danica (Arterburn) will throw one game and I’ll probably start Karlyn in another and try to throw Kaytlin Ripa some in there. It will be the first varsity pitching for either of them (Arterburn and Ripa),” Davidson said. “I tried to get everybody in today and I’ll try to do that again this weekend.

“I feel like everyday at practice and in every game that our team is maturing. We’re so young so our goals are to get experience and understand the way the game is supposed to be played. This team needs to continue to mature for us to be successful.”