SPORTS

Seniors lead USJ softball over TRA

Jeff Clark
sports@jacksonsun.com

While it wasn't Senior Night for the University School of Jackson softball team against Tipton-Rosemark, the seniors made it a memorable one. USJ defeated The Lady Rebels 10-4 to avenge Tuesday’s 4-1 loss.

Senior Addison Dunn went 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBI to pace the Lady Bruins offense, and senior pitcher Ally McFarland (19-5) went the distance scattering six hits, striking out 10 and walking two.

Seniors Anna Pearson and Anna Rice each went 3-for-4, and Pearson contributed a home run in the second inning to make it an early 5-1 lead for USJ (22-5-1).

The Lady Bruins jumped on Tipton-Rosemark (21-14) in the first inning behind five hits and two Lady Rebel errors.

Pearson singled and Kallie Pickens reached on an error before McFarland’s RBI single scored Pearson. Dunn knocked in Pickens, and Camryn Coley's double off the left field fence scored McFarland and Dunn for the early 4-0 USJ lead.

Tipton-Rosemark scored one in the top of the second before Pearson's shot over the fence in center field. The Lady Rebels added one run in the third on a wild pitch before Dunn answered with her homer to center.

“This pitcher [TRA’s Rachel Whitley] tonight, I have been seeing her for the last three years so it has become sort of a rivalry between us,” said Dunn. “Sometimes she gets me and sometimes I get her – like tonight. I just went up there tonight knowing that I could hit her, and that we all could hit her. So I just focused.”

Addison Dunn shared the difference for the Bruins today. “Coming off last year, we had beaten them pretty badly last year so we thought they would roll over like they did last year. They came in [Tuesday] off a loss and were really pumped up, and I think they tried harder than us that day. Today, we were pumped up after that [loss] Tuesday, and we were excited and ready.

“We love home games, and we haven't had many this year. The environment and seeing all the fans out here makes it a lot of fun for us to play.”

In the fifth inning, Coley's two-out single brought home Dunn and Rice for an 8-2 Lady Bruin lead.

TRA's Katie Diggs doubled home two in the top of the sixth before Dunn and Rice retaliated in the bottom half of the inning. Dunn singled home Pearson, and Rice knocked in senior Kristen Pickens.

“It's a district game that we really needed to win,” said USJ coach Brian Dunn. “Our kids came out very focused. We put the ball in play low and hard. Even the home runs were line shots. There were a lot of hard hit groundballs and line drives that produced a lot of runs.”

Today was different according to Dunn. “We have scored a lot of runs off this team in the past, but Tuesday in Memphis we got kinda stymied 4-1. Last year though we scored seven, 11 and seven runs against them so we have scored a lot off them. We outhit them 7-6 Tuesday but we didn't string those hits together into runs. Today, we had a lot (14) of hits, and they were timely. We strung them together, and we even got some two-out hits that helped.

“It was great to see our kids bounce back today. Ally pitched a great game, and our offense really did well.”