Prep softball: North Murray falls to Calhoun

Published 11:47 pm Wednesday, September 3, 2014

CHATSWORTH — The rain held off under threatening skies Wednesday evening at North Murray High School, but Calhoun’s softball team was in full force, rolling to a 13-0 victory over the Lady Mountaineers.

The Lady Yellow Jackets (8-3), who won last year’s Class 2A state title, improved to 4-1 in Region 6-3A play with the win. North Murray dropped to 5-8 overall and 3-3 in the league.

“Calhoun is a great team and everybody knows that, but we’re not playing as a whole yet,” North Murray senior Katie Epps said. “You know, we were a really tight-knit group last year and we have a bunch of new players. We’re all kind of separate; we’re still in that bonding phase. 

“It’s kind of a work in progress, but we’re not finished yet.”

Lady Yellow Jackets pitchers Kinsey Liscio and Emily Mitchell surrendered just two hits while striking out 10, and they got plenty of support at the plate. Calhoun piled up 18 hits in what coach Diane Smith referred to as “one of the best games we’ve played overall.”

“We’ve been struggling on defense and then another game we’d struggle on offense,” Smith said. “Today I thought we hit the ball well and made several great plays on defense. We covered the bunt well and both of my pitchers did a great job. It was a great game for us.” 

North Murray had just two baserunners during the first three innings, and Tatum Brown and Megan Pittman were the only Lady Mountaineers with a hit in the game.

“Right now we’re not hitting the ball and we’re not playing defense,” North Murray coach Steve Granger said. “If you’re going to be bad at one thing, you better be good at the other. Right now we’re not, and we definitely weren’t today.”

The only thing that slowed Calhoun was a 30-minute delay due to lightning in the area in the middle of the third inning, with Calhoun up 5-0. Calhoun tallied its final eight runs in the sixth and seventh.

“They hit the ball well,” Granger said. “The first couple of innings some balls fell in, and maybe if they’re two inches to the left they’re fouled, but that’s the game. The good thing is we get to come back tomorrow and hopefully bounce back in the region standings. Sonoraville comes in here and we get to try it again.

“Tomorrow is a clean slate.”