After a week on the road, Central High School softball returned to Coffee County Tuesday, March 19, for the team's home opener against region foe Columbia. The Lady Raiders fell behind early, but took off for a 13-2 slaughter rule victory after five innings.
"Slow start, you can chalk that up to nerves or the first home game, whatever it may be," Coach Brandon McWhorter said. "Great finish. We hit the ball well, defensively we got back to where we needed to be."
The win improves CHS to 4-0 overall, including a 2-0 record in District 8-AAA following a victory over Shelbyville in the season opener on Tuesday, March 12.
"It feels great," Katie Rutledge said. "I feel like we can keep the ball rolling pretty easily."
The Lady Lions took an early lead in the top of the first inning. After singling on a line drive to Erin Ferrell in right field, Haley Barnes took off for home on a deep ball to left to put Columbia up 1-0.Â
CHS was unable to put a scoring drive together through the first two innings, while Lady Lion Tashiya Lyles rounded the bases in the top of the third to put Columbia up 2-0.Â
Momentum shifted in the bottom of the third inning when the Lady Raiders stepped to the plate. With Haley Miller on third and Ashley Evans on second, Sarah West doubled on a fly ball to center field to send Miller and Evans home and tie the game at 2-2. West advanced to third on a Kerri Munn line drive, then stole home for the go-ahead run.Â
CHS continued to push ahead in the bottom of the fourth. With Miller at the plate, Gracie Pippenger stole third and home to put CHS up 4-2. The same at-bat, Miller doubled on a fly ball out to left to bring in Justus Turner. Next in the order was Rutledge, who knocked a deep one out to right field. Rutledge sent Ferrell, Miller's courtesy runner, home and rounded the bases herself for an inside the park home run.Â
"I thought he [McWhorter] might stop her [Ferrell] at third base and I was almost at third base so I was kind of scared," Rutledge said. "But after he told me to go I was good with that then and he told me to slide."
The Lady Raiders added two more runs from Evans and Munn in the fourth to make it a 9-2 ballgame. After three quick outs in the top of the fifth, CHS brought in four more to bring the game to a close.Â
"Right now we're rolling," McWhorter said. "We've got a long week this week, starting off the week 2-0, that hopefully will go into the next five games and we'll see what we do after that week."
Haley Richardson pitched through all five innings, allowed four hits and two runs with two strikeouts.Â
At the plate, the Lady Raiders finished with 13 hits, led by Evans with three.
On Thursday, Mar. 21, the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles made history by winning their first WNIT game with a 69-64 victory over the UIC Flames and they will look to make the Super 16 when they play host to Wisconsin on Monday night.
On Saturday, the Coffee County Red Raiders took part in the Joe Adams Memorial Tournament at Walker Valley High School, losing to Cleveland 14-4 and beating Walker Valley 6-4.
On Thursday night, the Coffee Middle Lady Raiders overcame a first inning deficit to win 10-6 at Warren County, the Red Raiders swept the Pioneers in a doubleheader, and the Westwood Rockets lost in a 7-6 nail-biter to Liberty.