CALEDONIA — Pitching and defense don”t discriminate.
Although the combination typically may be associated more often with fast-pitch softball, the Hamilton High School slow-pitch team showed Thursday how far that timely tandem can take a team.
Alison Atkins allowed just four hits and received plenty of help from a defense that turned two double plays in a 10-0 victory against Caledonia. The 10-run mercy rule shortened the game to five innings.
While not pleased his team had only six hits, Hamilton coach Lewis Earnest was happy to see his squad play a better defensive game after inconsistent efforts against Amory, Nettleton, and Smithville in which it had six to eight errors.
“(Atkins) did a good job of throwing strikes and we played good defense,” said Earnest, whose team improved to 2-2. “We turned two double plays. If you do that you have a chance to win, even if you don”t hit good.”
Hamilton committed only one error (two in the team”s scorebook) in a game Earnest called its best defensive effort of the season. The Lady Lions benefited from a lineup change that saw Lexus Jordan move from center field to third base and Addie Thompson move from the outfield to second base.
“It hadn”t been working,” Earnest said of the old defense.
Earnest said he wanted to move Jordan to third to capitalize on her aggressiveness. Thompson proved to be a good partner with shortstop Taylor Hyland, who is in her second season at the position.
The defensive effort helped Hamilton make the most out of its six hits. Cheyenne Logan and Mary Willis had two-run singles in a five-run fourth inning that helped put the game away. Hyland had three hits, including a double, and two RBIs, and Atkins had the team”s other hit.
“We”re going to have to work on it,” Earnest said of the hitting. “We have the same girls back. We only lost two players, and they were two good players, but they didn”t get that many hits. They carried us a long way, but these girls played a lot better last year than they have this year. They started slow last year. Hopefully, they will pick it up.”
Caledonia, which is in its first year having slow-pitch softball back after a number of years, didn”t get its first hit until the fourth. The Lady Confederates (1-3) loaded the bases on singles by Aly Chance, Sarah Beth Kinard, and Chelsea Goley, but Cate Sansing grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.
Cassie Obman added a single in the fifth, but she, too, was erased in a 4-6-3 double play that ended the game.
Caledonia coach Robin Elmore, who also coaches the school”s fast-pitch team, said many of her younger players are playing slow-pitch softball for the first time. The adjustment has come the slowest at the plate, where Elmore said many of the Lady Confederates aren”t waiting for the
It”s doubly difficult when a team commits three errors and allows eight walks. Five of the batters that walked scored.
Still, Elmore has seen some improvement.
“The kids are excited and are working hard,” Elmore said. “It is not that any of them aren”t trying. Cate has never been a pitcher and she is struggling with it, but it is like we have been telling them. We need to get better every game and to find something positive to build on.”
Caledonia played without third baseman Hope Burton (illness) and Ashley Langford (volleyball match). Elmore said the Lady Confederates are doing a good job making the plays they are supposed to make, but she said the time has come for the players to start to make the plays they aren”t supposed to make. That comes at the plate, too.
“We strung together a few good hits, but we couldn”t get the big hit when we had the bases loaded and one out,” Elmore said. “We will get there. We just want to get to where we can compete. I am not going to candy-coat it and say we are. Nobody said it is going to be easy. The excitement is over. We have slow pitch back and now we have to do something with it.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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