| Fillies still pain Union City | | Posted: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 6:25 am
| By RANDY CAVIN
Messenger Correspondent
Call it a thorn in Union City’s side, but Huntingdon seems to have the Lady Tornadoes’ number when it comes down to the Region 7A Softball Tournament semifinals.
The Fillies eliminated the Lady Twisters for the fifth time in the last six seasons with an 8-0 win Monday afternoon in Huntingdon.
The Lady Tornadoes got into trouble early, spotting the home team a three-run lead in the bottom of the first inning. Head coach Shane Sisco said it was the worst thing his team could have done.
“You cannot spot a quality team like Huntingdon three runs in the first inning, and two of those were not earned,” he said. “You cannot dig yourself into a hole and, when we did, we had to play catch-up the rest of the game and we could not do that.”
The Lady Twisters committed two errors in the first inning that led to two runs for the Fillies. Madison Ballard scored the first run for Huntingdon on Jamie Bailey’s base hit.
UC starting pitcher, Sadie Hollis, settled in and got the Fillies in a 1-2-3 inning in the second. The Fillies’ starting pitcher, Kristen Lowe, kept UC hitless through three innings. She ended up with a two-hitter.
Hollis led off the fourth with a base hit and stole second. But a fly-out to center field, a strikeout and a ground-out ended the scoring threat. Ballard drove in a run to make it 4-0 in the bottom of the third.
Huntingdon broke the game open with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it an 8-0 game. The Fillies scored on three base hits, one walk and a double in the inning.
Union City’s other lone hit came in the top of the sixth when Kristian Davis hit a double to center field.
The Lady Tornadoes had some hard hits, but they went right at the Huntingdon defense. Sisco said even with the hard hits, the girls were not patient enough at the plate.
“As far as our bats, we were not patient enough,” Sisco said. “That is something we stressed yesterday (Sunday). She did not throw real hard (Lowe). She hit some spots, and we swung right out in front of them and hit some ground balls to the left-hand side.
“We needed to come over here and play well, and the bottom line is we did not and they did.”
The bright spot for the Lady Twisters will be that they will not be in a rebuilding mode for next season. Union City will have all of but one of its players back. UC will be losing only shortstop Katelin Wheeles, an Austin Peay signee, to graduation.
“I think it is a good opportunity next year for them to get back to this spot and, hopefully, move on,” Sisco said. “Everybody is back. Our infield, except for our shortstop, was basically new. We were new behind the plate, first, second and third. We will have a strong infield and I commend those kids.”
Sisco said because of his absence from the team for the last couple of weeks, he takes full responsibility for the way the team, which finished with a 21-16 record, performed at the end of the 2012 campaign.
“I take blame for our inability to play as well at the end,” said Sisco, who was hospitalized twice with due to illness. “It was rough on these kids with different people each day helping or in charge. I give them credit for sticking in there and hanging together and being able to accomplish what they did. They won 21 games and were able to make it back to the regional tournament again. I commend them for sticking in there when times were rough.”
Published in The Messenger 5.15.12 | | | | |
