Trinity Collegiate’s Lady Titans show their dominance against Lamar
By Don Gearhart
On paper, the softball matchup pitting the Trinity Lady Titans against the Lady Silver Foxes from Lamar, favored the veteran girls from Lamar who won districts a year ago and only lost one starter from that squad. Albeit, they were missing one of their premier players in Dakota Melancon who was not available for the game. On the other hand, Trinity is playing their first season at the varsity level and showed five eighth graders, three freshmen, and one junior in their lineup.
Lamar appeared to strike first when Kelly Anderson blasted a homerun over the right-center field fence. The umpires completely botched the call. On the pitch that Anderson hit, the umpire called an illegal pitch on a 3-1 count to Anderson. He then pointed to first base indicating the illegal pitch was considered a ball which would constitute a walk. In reality, an illegal pitch is a dead ball call and if the batter swings and makes contact, the offensive coach is given the choice of accepting the batted ball, or, a ball called on the batter. Instead of momentum, the call seemed to doom the Lady Silver Foxes. Reagan Rowsey started the Lady Titans first inning by drawing a walk. Laura Beth Brown hit a line drive to center that was dropped. The throw to second would have been an out but was dropped. Pinckney Riddle walked to load the bases and Maddie Scott walked to drive in the first run. A walk to Allie Bouchard brought home a second run. Sarah Watkins drove home the third run with a fielder’s choice and Trinity took a 3-0 lead.
It turned out that the controversial walk to Anderson was the only baserunner for Lamar on the night. Trinity would double their lead in the second. After one out, Rowsey got aboard on an error. Brown followed with a solid base hit moving Rowsey to third. Riddle hit into a fielder’s choice enabling Rowsey to score. An error allowed Trinity to load the bases and a walk to Bouchard brought home a second run. Watkins then hit a sacrifice fly to allow the third run of the innng to scorel.
In the bottom of the third, Eliza Seagars and Ella Gray both got on base from fielding errors. Rowsey drove home one run on a base hit. Another run scored when Brown doubled in the gap. Riddle’s grounder was misplayed to put runners on first and third. Scott walked to load the bases and consecutive walks to Bouchard and Watkins . Errors contributed to the remaining runs as the Lady Titans put up a 9-spot to end the game via a 15-run rule.
Brown led the young Trinity squad with two hits. Rowsey was the winning pitcher. She did not allow a hit other than the controversial homer on the illegal pitch. She struck out five of the ten batters she faced and did not walk a batter.
