Lady Canes Storm Patriots
The Monticello Lady Hurricane softball team made the long trip to Lexington last Wednesday to take on the Lady Patriots of Oglethorpe County and leave with a 8-5 win.
Oglethorpe County came into the game with a 13-7 record and ranked #9 in the state in Class A Division 1 by TheCoachesBox, a high school baseball and softball website that utilizes coach’s votes to compile their polls, and #16 according to the Maxpreps computer polls which analyze strength of schedule and other factors. Both teams came into the game in a fight for playoff seeding, with Oglethorpe’s lone region win coming against the Lady Canes.
The game started off with both teams getting runners on base, but unable to produce any scoring action. Oglethorpe County was able to scratch across two runs in the bottom of the third off of two Monticello errors, giving them an early 2-0 lead.
After living dangerously in the bottom of the fourth inning with Kylee Schell working around two Lady Patriot singles, the bats came alive in the top of the fifth. Lindsey Thomas started the inning off with a hard grounder up the first base line that gave her a leadoff single.
M’Kayla Middlebrooks laid down a bunt to move her up to second. With one away in the inning, Kyla King laid down a bunt that was fielded by the Oglethorpe pitcher, but a low throw allowed King to reach safely, and moved Thomas up to third.
On the second pitch of the next at-bat, King stole second. Two pitches later Maddie Spieks grounded out sharply to second, allowing Thomas to score the first Hurricane run of the evening, and moving King up to third. Hailey Roper laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line to score King, knotting the score at two on another big two out hit for Roper.
Haven Cannon came to the plate and knocked a double to left field, advancing Roper, but that was all the Canes could push across before the inning came to an end.
Two consecutive clean innings for the Lady Canes brought about the seventh and final inning with the score still stuck in a stalemate at two apiece. The inning started off with back-to-back strikeouts, putting the Lady Canes behind the eight-ball with two outs.
Spieks, the leadoff batter for the Canes took the second pitch of her at-bat and hit an absolute rocket to right-center. This resulted in a triple, and Spieks stood at third with two outs. Roper laid down the perfect bunt once more, scoring Spieks, and providing more clutch two-out hitting. Cannon came up and lined another double to left, scoring Roper all the way from first, and putting the Canes up 4-2.
They weren’t finished yet, with Mackenzie Diaz hitting a hard ground ball single to short, scoring Cannon on the throw to up the lead to three, with Diaz advancing to second on the throw from first to home. Schell popped up to end the inning, and the Canes took the field with a three run lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning.
With two quick outs, the Lady Canes were one out away from taking down #9. Things were not to be though, as Oglethorpe scored in quick succession, after a single, error, another single and error, and a double allowed them to tie it up at 5-all in the bottom of the seventh. Schell was able to get the final out of the inning, and the Canes went back to work again.
With one out Thomas hit another single to right, Middlebrooks worked a walk to move Thomas up, and King again used her speed to beat out a bunt single and load the bases. Spieks hit a line drive single to left, scoring Thomas to give the Lady Canes a 6-5 lead in the top of the eighth.
On the play, Middlebrooks scored on an error by the left fielder, moving King and Spieks up a base with still one out on the board. Hailey “Clutch” Roper laid down another bunt, scoring King from third, and increasing the lead back to three runs for the Canes.
In the bottom of the inning, the Lady Patriots led off reaching on an error on a ground ball to short. This seemed like an ominous situation considering what had happened just the previous inning, but the defense stepped up and got three consecutive outs to finish out the game and give the Lady Canes a hard fought 8-5 victory.
The Lady Hurricanes softball program was to host Social Circle on Tuesday and Oglethorpe today, Oct. 6. The regular season will close with a doubleheader at Prince Avenue on Tuesday, Oct. 11. These last few games will go a long way in determining seeding for the GHSA playoffs, so come out and support the Lady Canes!