By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
GAYLESVILLE – Coming into their first Class 1A, Area 12 softball game of the season at Gaylesville on Tuesday, Spring Garden coach Ann Welsh tried to impress upon the Lady Panthers they needed to score runs every inning.
She knew what Gaylesville’s bats were capable of.
Even though the Lady Panthers did what Welsh wanted them to by scoring at least one run in every inning, the Lady Trojans were still hard to shake.
In the end, however, Spring Garden managed to earn a 23-12 win in six innings in a near-three hour marathon.
“I hope they saw the importance of scoring runs,” Welsh said.
“I feel like we had very aggressive base running. I liked the inning when we were bunting and moving people around. I thought we did a great job when somebody got on and we’d find a way to move her, get her into scoring position. Several times we had runners at second and we were able to get a hit and score a run. Those are the things we’ve got to be doing. We’ve been working on them, and we did a better job with those tonight.”
Gaylesville coach Clay Joseph was glad to see his young Lady Trojans not back down against Spring Garden.
“We’ve played a lot of JV and junior high games, and we’ve ruled that part of it, but we have to play more varsity games,” he said. “I think this game tonight showed me we’re ready for that.
“It excites me to see how well we’re hitting the ball, but we’re just not a team built to score 20 runs. We’re built to play small ball, score six or seven runs a game and win that way.”
Spring Garden (6-14) scored three runs in the top of the first inning off Gaylesville starter MaKenlee Young, but the Lady Trojans got two of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning to make it a 3-2 game after one.
The Lady Panthers pushed across another run in the second to take a 4-2 advantage, then sent 13 batters to the plate in the top of the third and scored seven runs to go out in front 11-2.
Gaylesville (6-6) scored twice in the bottom of the third to make it an 11-4 contest, but Spring Garden responded with a four-run fourth to take a 15-4 lead.
It continued to be that kind of back-and-forth pace. Seemingly every time Spring Garden had put the game out of reach, Gaylesville managed to scratch some runs across to extend it.
“They fought hard,” Welsh said of Gaylesville. “They tried our defense, and it worked sometimes. There are a few things there we’ve got to get better on.”
Both teams were prone to the defensive miscues on Tuesday. Both committed eight errors to aid the other’s offense.
“Defensive-wise, we make too many errors, but I keep telling myself it’s because we’re young,” Joseph said. “We’ll figure it out.”
Maya Jennings led Spring Garden at the plate by going 4-for-5 with two doubles, a walk, four runs, and four RBIs. Hayden Parris went 4-for-6 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs.
Olivia Messer was 3-for-6 with a double, two runs, and four RBIs. Addie Word went 2-for-6 with a double, four runs and two RBIs. Paisley Woodall was 2-for-5 with a double, a run, and two RBIs. Kylie Bates went 2-for-5 with a walk, five runs, and two RBIs. Kendall Birchfield was 2-for-5 with a run and a RBI.
Bella Garmon added a hit, a run, and two RBIs. Lleyton Carroll walked and drove in a run. Brylei Hall scored two runs and Ava Boatner scored a run.
Bayleigh Ratliff went 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk and two RBIs for the Lady Trojans. Reynolds was 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk, three runs, and a RBI. Aubrey Colbert went 1-for-3 with a run.
Kya Green walked, scored a run, and had a RBI. Adalyn Lusk walked and scored two runs. Taylee Keith scored a run and drove in another.
Chloe Collins, MaKenlee Young, and Charlee Sentell each scored a run. Kylie Canada and Isabella Grande both walked.
Birchfield pitched 4 1/3 innings for Spring Garden. She allowed an earned run on five hits with five walks and a strikeout.
Word worked 1 2/3 innings. She gave up an earned run on a hit with a walk and two strikeouts.
Young worked 2 2/3 innings. She allowed an earned run on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Reynolds tossed 3 1/3 innings. She gave up four earned runs on 13 hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
Both teams play each other again on Monday at Spring Garden at 4:30 p.m.
