Lady Patriots blank Lady Vikings in tourney

Avery Cox’s fourth hit was a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning that capped the Henry County High School girls’ softball team’s 10-0 victory over Clarksville Northwest in a first-round game in the District 10-AAA Tournament played Thursday at HCHS.

Henry County (20-8) is the tournament’s No. 3 seed and will advance to play the winner of No. 2 Springfield and No. 7 Northeast, who played each other Thursday. That game for the Lady Patriots will be today.

If Springfield is involved, the game will likely be played at 4:30 p.m. today at Springfield. If Northeast is in the second round, then the Lady Eagles will travel to HCHS for a 5:30 p.m. contest today.

The only other score known Thursday night was No. 1 seed Clarksville’s rout of No. 8 Kenwood 16-0. Clarksville will host the Montgomery Central-Rossview winner tonight.

Lady Patriot hurler Emily Brown kept the Northwest offense in check all night Thursday in pitching the shutout victory. Brown allowed two hits and she hit one batter. She had four strikeouts.

Henry County got on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning when Cox singled and later scored on a base hit by Shelby Summers.

The Lady Patriots got their second run an inning later when Mattie Vermillion beat out a slap bunt. Kinsley Nichols put down a sacrifice bunt with Vermillion not stopping at second but racing all the way to third base. She scored on a wild pitch to give Henry County a 2-0 lead.

Henry County erupted for four runs in the fourth inning. Cox got the rally started with a base hit and then stole two bases before scoring on Abby Gilstrap’s base hit. Katie Coffield was hit by a pitch and Summers knocked in her second run of the night to put the Lady Patriots’ lead at 4-0.

Coffield scored on a fielding error to make it 5-0 and Summers raced home on a wild pitch later in the inning to put Henry County’s lead at 6-0.

in the bottom of the fifth inning, Cox had singled and advanced to second when Gilstrap hit another single. Cox attempted to score on the hit but ran into the Northwest third baseman. The umpires awarded Cox home plate because of fielder’s interference.

Gilstrap later raced home on a wild pitch to push the Henry County lead to 8-0.

That set the stage for Cox’s game-ending hit in the sixth inning. Nichols started the inning with a single and Caroline Hudson was hit by a pitch. Cox doubled into right-center field to score both her teammates and push the HCHS lead to 10-0. The game was stopped on the mercy rule at that point.

MORE DISTRICT TOURNEY GAMES

District 10-AAA Tournament play begins for the Patriot baseball team at 5:30 p.m. today at Clarksville High School. The Patriots (20-7) are the tournament’s No. 3 seed.

In soccer, the Patriots will open play at 6 p.m. Monday at West Creek High School in Clarksville.