Published: May 07, 2008 02:50 pm            

Lady Foxes third at Benton

By CHARLES PENDELL

Sports correspondent

McLEANSBORO — The Hamilton County Lady Foxes softball team had a successful weekend at the Benton Invitational on Saturday and through the week picked up a 5-0 win over Wayne City on April 28 on the road, but suffered a 2-1 loss to Elkville on May 1.

Still the girls in green recovered on the weekend, plastering Eldorado in their first game of the tournament and then tangled with Zeigler-Royalton-Christopher, which defeated the Lady Foxes 5-4 in a five-inning contest that had a time limit.

Then the Lady Foxes met up with the host Rangerettes in the third-place game under the lights and finished with a 9-8 victory in nine innings over Benton.



Lady Foxes vs. Wayne City

The Lady Foxes opened up the week traveling north up route 242 to Wayne City and came away with a 5-0 victory over the Lady Indians. Jacqueline McGill picked up the win on the hill as she struck out seven, walked two and only allowed three hits on the afternoon. The girls in green scored three runs in the third, one in the fifth and one in the sixth. They smashed out nine hits with Kelsey Bowman leading the way with a single and two doubles and one RBI, McGill helped her cause with a single and a double and one RBI, Nikki Ojala a single and one RBI, Kira Irons a double, Kait Sloan a single and Ashtyn Braden a single.

“We beat Wayne City on Monday,” coach Chrissy Cockrum said. “It wasn’t much of a struggle against Wayne City. They only had three hits against us.”

The Lady Foxes then stayed on the road to Elkville on May 1 and fell to the host Lady Falcons in a defensive battle for both teams as the host finally prevailed with a 2-1 victory. Kayla Kreher took the loss on the mound striking out three, walked three and only allowed two hits and one error in the seven inning affair. The Lady Falcons scored their first run in the first inning, while the Lady Foxes tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fifth. Elkville managed to squeeze their go ahead run in the bottom of the seventh on a Lady Fox error.

Leading the Fox battery on the day was Alexis York with a single, Chelsea Steele a single and McGill a single.

“We lost to Elkville on an error,” Cockrum said. “They hit a line shot to Chelsea that she usually gets at third and it just ran up her arm and the runner scored. We played them the week before and lost by one run too. Elkville didn’t hit very well against us. They only hit one good single, but we made a bunch of nice plays against them. Benton Tourney Lady Foxes vs. Eldorado

The Lady Foxes ventured over to the Benton Invitational tourney on Saturday May 3 and drubbed the Eldorado Lady Eagles in their first game 11-0 as Kreher had a super day on the hill striking out 13, walked two and finished the game with a one-hitter.

The girls from Mactown banged out 14 hits in game one as Steele led the way with two singles and two doubles and three RBI’s, while Nikki Ojala had three doubles, McGill had two doubles and one RBI, Kelsey Bowman had a single and a double and one RBI, Alexis York a home run and two RBI’s and Braden two triples.

“We played a lot better on Saturday,” Cockrum added. “It just took us a little time to get out of the rut of not playing. We got a lot better as the day went on. Alexis York hit a home run and she just kept running and she got home before they could tag her.” Lady Foxes vs. ZRC

After the Lady Foxes sat around and waited for the other teams to finish, they finally got back to action about three hours later taking on ZRC in semi-final action. ZRC edged the Lady Foxes in five innings, but the game was on a time limit and the Lady Foxes had two runners on in the fifth, but couldn’t get them home, as ZRC managed to squeeze the go ahead run in the bottom of the fifth before the time limit ran out for a 5-4 victory.

Kreher took the tough loss striking out four, walked four and allowed five hits and had one error behind her.

The Lady Foxes had six hits on the afternoon, with McGill leading the way with a triple and one RBI, Kreher a single and two RBI’s, Sloan a double, Nikki Ojala a single, Steele a single, Bowman a single and Sam York one RBI.

“We made plays all day long,” Cockrum said. “We were looking like a ball team. I think we would have won the game against ZRC if we had played two more innings. We were chipping away at ZRC and they didn’t know what to make of it. We fell just a little bit short. Nikki tried to score from third, but the outfielder had a pretty good arm and they tagged her out at the plate. It was close. Nikki apologized for getting thrown out. I told her that I didn’t want her to apologize for being aggressive. We took a chance this time and maybe the next time it might be in our favor. If you don’t attempt it then you’ll never know if you could do it.” Lady Foxes vs. Benton

The Lady Foxes moved to the third place contest against the host Rangerettes under the lights and jumped ahead 5-0 in the game, but Benton came right back to tie the game at 5-5 in the fifth. The girls in green then went back ahead 6-5 and then Benton went up 8-6, before the gals in green finally picked up the win in the top of the ninth scoring three runs. Kreher started the game on the hill giving way to McGill in the bottom of the fifth. McGill shut the door along with some very tough defense behind her to preserve the marathon 9-8 ball game.

“We played Benton last week and then this game and it took Benton about 11 innings to figure out Kayla and then we put McGill in and they had problems figuring her out as well. The fifth inning was our worst inning when they scored six runs. McGill pretty much shut them down only allowing two more runs to cross the plate. The girls worked real hard and didn’t give up at the end.”

The Lady Foxes ended up with third place and improved their record to 7-11. They host Crab Orchard on May 8 and Carterville in a rescheduled game on May 9 at Epperson Field before entering the regional next week at West Frankfort.

        

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