Softball season is still really early as teams have been playing less than two weeks, but there are some teams finding out some very valuable information about themselves.
Take the Boyd Buchanan Lady Buccaneers, for instance. They’ve only played three games and they’ve won them all while Thursday’s 4-3 win at GPS was the second straight one-run game they’ve played.
The Lady Bucs only had five hits on the day while three others reached on errors, but the Lady Bucs made the plays when they had to and got clutch pitching all afternoon for what coach Tom Watson called “a total team win.”
“I thought we hit it really hard the entire game, but had a hard time getting anything past them,” Watson began after the game ended.
“It was a total team effort as at least 12 of our 14 players did something to contribute. And I thought all of our pitchers did okay. Kinley Ervin has been struggling a bit in recent days, but I thought she did well for the first three innings.
“There were times when we made some bad decisions, but I was really proud of Payton Rider, who is just an eighth grader. Gracie Petty is our senior at third base and very much a part of what we do, but she just hasn’t been hitting well and that’s when I put Payton in to hit. She responded with her very first high school hit which came right before we scored the winning run.
“I know that my decisions aren’t always the most popular, but we’re trying to win softball games for Boyd Buchanan and not for ourselves. I think I made the right decision. But GPS has improved quite a bit and today’s game came right down to the wire,” Watson added.
GPS coach London Cornelius is not one to gladly accept a loss, but she saw a lot of positives from her girls on Thursday.
“I can’t ask for anything more as we never gave up, we kept battling and everyone did their job,” she began after her team dropped to 2-3 for the season.
“I think we found our chemistry today. We knew we’d have to battle as Boyd Buchanan has a really good team, but I thought our girls did a good job of picking each other up. A loss certainly stings a little bit, but nothing to be mad about. Our goal is to be playing in late May and I feel like we’re headed in the right direction,” she concluded with a smile.
This was a roller coaster game where the lead changed hands numerous times before the Lady Bucs finally scored what turned out to be the winning run in the seventh inning.
Ella Meade led off the seventh with an infield single and went to second on a wild pitch. Brooke Watson walked before Rider blooped a single just down the line in right to load the bases with just one out.
Catcher Allie Johnson then flied to right for the second out as Meade scooted home with the last run.
Mercedes Smith scored Boyd’s first run when she led off the third with a walk and later scored on a groundout by Meade.
GPS regained lead at 2-1 in the fourth when Nana Reyes led off with a single and went to second on a sacrifice by Sylia Hicks before scoring on a single by Ansley Bratcher. Haidin Lawrence then followed with a double to the fence in right-center to drive in Bratcher.
That lead didn’t last long as the Lady Bucs scored twice in the fifth, Smith reaching on her second walk before K.K. Butler reached on an error. After a sacrifice by Meade, Kiley Elliott doubled to drive in two runs.
Emma Leinberger helped her own cause with a leadoff triple in the fifth before tying the run as she scored on a single by Addi Smith.
Elliott came in to relieve Brooke Watson after a walk and a wild pitch put runners on second and third, but Elliott escaped further damage by getting Hicks on a swinging third strike and Bratcher on a hard grounder to short.
Nobody scored in the sixth, setting the stage for the Lady Bucs comeback in the seventh.
Elliott was the winning pitcher in relief as she allowed just one hit in 2.2 innings while striking out four. She allowed a single to Jayla Gladden in the sixth before retiring the side in order in the seventh, including the final out on a called third strike.
Leinberger took the loss after allowing all four runs on five hits. She also had four walks and one strikeout.
The Lady Bucs got single hits from Meade, Elliott, Watson, Rider and Laney Johnson while GPS ended the day with nine hits, including two from Gladden and Leinberger.
Both of these teams are scheduled to participate in the Wildcat Classic, which will be played at Hixson and Warner Park.
BOYD BUCHANAN 001 020 1 – 4 5 2
GPS 000 210 0 – 3 9 3
Ervin, Watson (4), Elliott (5) and Johnson; Leinberger and Long.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)