By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – Spring Garden senior softball pitcher Avery Steward was in control of the circle on Monday against visiting Sand Rock. She went the distance, allowing just three hits with a walk and struck out seven batters in the Lady Panthers’ 7-0 victory.
It was the type of performance Spring Garden head coach Ann Welsh said she saw coming for Steward.
“She was on today,” Welsh said. “She felt very confident. She controlled the game and worked around all the batters. I think all of her pitches were working well. She was hitting the corners. I was proud of how well she pitched today.”
Steward gave credit to her defense for her shutout performance.
“My defense did a great job behind me just making plays,” she said. “They’ve been doing that all year. It’s just nice to be able to rely on them.”
After two scoreless innings, the Lady Panthers finally broke through and gave Steward some run support in the bottom of the third. They batted around and scored four runs, aided by three Sand Rock fielding errors.
Olivia Law led off the inning with a single to left off of Sand Rock starter Emma Sipsy. Maggie Jarrett and Rylie Ham later added run-scoring singles.
“We had a little bit of letdown there in that inning,” Sand Rock coach Josh Bates said. “We didn’t make some plays that we needed to and we didn’t get a couple of things to go our way on calls, and it snowballed.”
The Lady Panthers put the pressure on Sand Rock’s defense by bunting the ball.
“We were able to bunt some,” Welsh said. “We’ve been working on that for a while. The last couple of weeks I’ve felt like we’ve done a better job of that. We just keep doing it if it’s working.
“We’ve got some fast girls. The top half of our lineup is very fast, and you can do some of that when you have that.”
Spring Garden tacked on a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth for the final.
Ham and Layla Ingram led the Lady Panthers at the plate. Both went 2-for-4. One of Ham’s hits was a run-scoring double. Ingram scored a run.
Steward delivered a hit, a walk and a run. Maggie Jarrett and Addie Word were both 1-for-4 with a run and a RBI. Kylie Bates 1-for-4 with a run. Olivia Law went 1-for-3 with a run.
Helena Ingram had a run and a RBI. Lilly McCain drove in a run.
Aliyah King, Aubie Camp and Raven Todd had the lone Sand Rock hits. Macy Martin drew a walk
Sipsy suffered the loss after working three innings. She didn’t allow an earned run on six hits with no walks and a pair of strikeouts.
“We put the ball in play. We just hit it at them. That was the difference,” Bates said. “They got some timely hits in some gaps. When we put it in play we hit it at them. Their defense made the plays and she (Steward) did a really good job locating her pitches. She did what she could to help her team win.”
Both teams are back in area action on Tuesday. Spring Garden hosts Gaylesville, while Sand Rock entertains Pleasant Valley. Both games are at 4:30 p.m.
