GALLIPOLIS — Gallia Academy made it look so easy Wednesday night nearly everyone wanted to get involved.

The Blue Angels (1-0, 1-0 SEOAL South) had 16 safeties split between 10 different players in claiming a commanding 16-4 season opening victory against visiting Chillicothe (0-1, 0-1) Wednesday night in five innings.

“We got the bats going and I was pleased with that. Their pitching wasn’t quite what they would have liked, but we just have to take care of our own business and come with good attitudes everyday. That is our goal,” said Gallia Academy head coach Jim Niday.

While nearly the entire team got involved at the plate, none had a better evening than senior Lindsay Ward who went 4-for-4 with a double and four runs batted in. Shayna Feustal added a triple, a single and three RBIs, Amy Noe went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Calissa Mayes had two hits to pace the Angel attack.

Stacie Cummons, Courtney Shriver, Hannah Cunningham and Kassie Day added an RBI smash apiece and Biranda Green and Brittany Miller had a hit each.

Noe also went the distance on the mound, striking out seven in the victory.

The Lady Cavaliers had trouble getting anything going against the red-hot pitching of Noe with only four hits while racking up four errors. GAHS had two errors in the its season opener.

“We made a couple errors on a few plays we should have made, but overall I think we are going to be a pretty versatile defensive team,” Niday said. “We just have to work on the fundamentals.”

Chillicothe was led by Green and Uhrig with a two run double each while Downing and Dempsey added a hit apiece. Downing also went seven innings on the mound, striking out three with six walks.

Gallia Academy wasted little time taking control of the contest, scoring a trio of runs in the bottom of the third. Mayes reached on a single, rounding the bases on a pair of wild pitches and coming home on a sacrifice fly from Shriver. Green then reached on a double and was brought home by a Feustal single and she rounded the bases on an error and two wild pitches to give the home squad a 3-0 lead.

After a scoreless second, the Blue and White put the visitors in a double digit deficit with seven runs in the third frame. Cummons, Noe, Ward and Day drove in one run and Feustal drove in two to push the lead up to 10-0.

Chillicothe finally got on the board in the top of the next inning when Dempsey reached on a single and Jacobs reached on an error, both coming home on a two-run shot from Uhrig.

Despite the newfound offense, another strong offensive surge from Gallia Academy in the bottom of the inning put the game away.

Ward drove in three runs and Cunningham, Shriver and Alli Saunders drove in a run each to give GAHS a 16-2 lead.

Chillicothe added two more runs in the top of the fifth when Green drove in a pair while facing two outs to bring the score to 16-4, but that is all the closer the Lady Cavaliers would get.

Overall it was a strong outing by the Blue Angels in the shortened outing.

“I am proud of our kids, they worked hard and we are very glad we have them,” Niday said.

Gallia Academy will return to action later today when it travels to Ironton in a makeup game. Game time is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

Gallia Academy 16, Chillicothe 4

5 innings

Chillicothe 000 22 — 4 3 4

Gallipolis 307 6X — 16 16 2

CHS (0-1, 0-1 SEOAL South): Downing and Uhrig.

GAHS (1-0, 1-0 SEOAL South): Amy Noe and Lindsay Ward.

WP — Noe. LP — Downing.